Wild Flowers
by Dresner1817
Summary: All is Quiet in Gotham, but still waters run deep. Karl, Deathstroke, and Ricky are planning to steal information from Gothcorp regarding a black project. But Poison Ivy launches her revenge on Gotham City. Can the team complete their mission? Can Batman and Harley Quinn stop Ivy? Set after DNA Part 2. (Bman x HQ) (OC x Ivy) Lemon Chp 6. R&R Set before BM: Arkham Knight
1. Chapter 1: Have a Drink

_**Hi Guys, Dresner Again, Once again I bring you a new story. Now this story is set after 'The Devils Name is Arkham: Part 2' so there will be references to Part 1 and 2 in this story, Especially since Batman and Harley are together in this. Now this story isn't going to be centered on them, but there will be a lot of references to them. **_

_**This story is set before the events of Batman:Arkham Knight. This seems to be the first since Arkham Knight isn't out yet. Now all the stuff that will be written about in this story regarding Arkham Knight is just complete works of fiction on my part and I have no contacts or anything in Rocksteady. I'm simply letting my imagination run wild.**_

_**One more thing: The Poison Ivy in this story is based off the New 52 version, Why? Because she is hot in the New 52 version. lol**_

_**Enjoy! and Remember, Read and Review! **_

_**With Love~ Dresner**_

* * *

_**Finnigan's Pub, Gotham City, 11:00pm**_

Finnigan's pub is an Irish pub in Gotham's Irish district founded during 1900 during the massive waves of Irish immigrants coming into the city following the great potato famine. John Finnigan opened the pub in order to make the Irish portion of Gotham a little more homey for his fellow Irish as they came off the boat from their beloved Ireland. As the years went by, The local cops began coming to the little hole in the wall before and after Prohibition in the 1920's. The end of Prohibition found a home to Gotham City's boys in blue soon after.

At the bar sat two men, a young ginger lad and a older Teutonic man, both clad in the same clothing, Black turtle necks, black waist high leather coats, dark jeans, and combat boots, drinking pints of dark Guinness together. They seemed almost out of place in the sea of dark and light blue uniforms of Gotham's 'Finest', but the cops were use to Irishmen dressed in such a manor that they didn't even notice the strangers.

"Sir," Rick "Ricky" Larson, the Ginger, asked his friend. "When is _Herr Opa_ going to arrive?"

His older friend let out a light heart chuckle as he took another sip of his pint, "He will show when he wants. Just calm down son, and don't call me sir. I'm just Karl. Now _Herr Opa_ will demand that you call him sir."

Karl Dael, the older Teuton, and Rick Larson, the ginger, have only been in Gotham for a few weeks since their departure only a few months ago following the wake of the closing of Arkham City and the death of the Joker. After Harley and Batman retreated to their love nest, Karl took Ricky, a petty thief and message runner for the mob, under his wing after the fall of Harley Quinn's gang. He felt bad for the young Ricky, After all he lost work because of him. Things are tough in this day and age due to near economic collapse and outsourcing has lead to the legal job market to wither to nothing, not to mention the exodus of the various Gotham families due to the opening of Arkham City and the uncertainty of the events leading to the Joker's death raised fears of Batman's 'No killing' policy being nothing but a Myth, at least to the lower forms of life such as the Falcone and Thorn families.

Due to the havoc caused by him that fateful night last winter lead to Karl having to lay low for awhile in his former hometown of Trussville, Alabama, with his new friend Rick. For four months he trained Rick in the ways of a solider, a real solider, and taught him a large amount of his extensive knowledge of combat and weapons training. Just like Slade Wilson taught him years ago...

With their names buried under the countless acts of terror by Gotham's infamous rogues, The Black Hunter and his apprentice returned to Gotham with a simple plan. A plan that would require the aid of his mentor and surrogate father, Slade Wilson.

Two hands fell on the opposing shoulders of the two men, instinct forcing them to reach into their coats for their handguns. But out of the corner of their eyes they saw the grey haired and one eyed Slade Wilson standing behind them in matching attire.

"If I was an assassin, I could have snapped both of your necks, cleared the bar, and finished the mission myself." Slade snapped, snatching Rick's pint and finishing off quickly. "I thought you taught him everything you know Karl?"

"Don't you mean half of everything you know, _Herr Opa_?" Karl responded with a snicker. "Good to see you again sir." Karl let out his hand to his mentor to shake his hand.

Slade gave a dark chuckle and shook the Black Hunters hand, "A Quarter would do and Likewise."

Slade Wilson, Deathstroke the Terminator, or simply Slade, was a world renown assassin and solider of fortune, The best Solider of fortune. Slade began his life at age 16 when he joined the US. Army and went on to serve his country during the Vietnam War. The war brought out the best in him, earning several decorations and pushed him up the Army hierarchy to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Soon the army chose him for a special program that was under development, the famed and legendary 'Super Solider' programs of the 1960's.

Being the only man who survived the augmentations, needles, serums, and over the sheer pain, The project was deemed a failure by the US Military and the War Department, AKA the Department of Defense (DOD). Thus Slade turned into the unstoppable death bringer Deathstroke. His past up to that point was all Karl knew about his mentor, Other than his dead son and living Daughter, Ravager, but the rest was a mystery.

The two met while in the Suicide Squad and soon Slade saw promise in the angry and aimless Karl. Slade respected him for his service in the military, whatever branch and in what country was another story, but also because he saw a lot of himself in him. Karl held him in high regards as well, but his arrogance rather bothered him as well as his rather questionable actions such as helping the League of Assassins. But he had no room to question such actions:

After all he did volunteer for Waller's Suicide Squad...

"I see the younger one hasn't seen combat yet." Slade remarked as he took a seat next to Karl and ordered another round for his other sons.

"I use to help the mob, Sir. I was also in Arkham City with the Joker's crew." Rick interjected only for Slade to reply with a scoff.

Slade pulled down the neck of his turtle neck revealing the letters M.A.C.V and S.O.G all in bold in a tab tattooed on his neck. "The Mafia and that reject are nothing to what I have seen and accomplished in my years."

"You were in MACV SOG, Sir?" Karl asked with mild curiosity as he finished his first drink and began on the second.

"I was the cream of the crop." Slade replied as he took his beer in hand for a toast. "And always will be."

"Damn Straight." Karl replied, toasting with his mentor and leaving out Rick.

"What's MACV SOG?" Rick asked them.

Before Slade could reply with a snippy remark Karl replied, "Military Assistance Command Vietnam and Service and Operation Group. They were Special Forces and Intelligence Outfits during the Vietnam War. In other words, Don't brag about your hard times because ol'Deathstroke here will tell you some shit that will make you pray for the Bat to come down and beat the shit out of you."

"Surprising that you know of MACV SOG Karl." Slade replied with a smirk.

"It ain't a surprise that you were in that outfit." Karl chuckled before finishing his second pint.

"OK whatever," Rick said annoyingly as he looked over his shoulder at the cops gathered at a table near by drinking. "Why are we here in this cop dive anyways? These guys are making me skittish."

"They're off duty," Karl remarked turning around to look right at them. "The only cop I know that would drink on duty would be that Harvey Bullock character. And besides, we aren't doing anything wrong at this moment and if we were..." Karl unbutton his coat to reveal the pearl grip of one of his Mauser C-96 pistols to Ricky. "We wouldn't have to worry about anything here."

Ricky's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates at Karl's blatant act of revealing he was armed in pubic, let alone in a Bar full of Cops! "Bro! What the fuck?! There are cops here! What are you thinking!?" Ricky whispered frantically, gazing over to the cops hoping that he didn't attract the attention of any of the boys in blue. "When am I gonna get my piece anyways? You've been holding out on me."

"First thing Richard, calm down." Slade told him as he finished his own pint. "Keep your thoughts clear and calm or else you might end up in a ditch without a trace of DNA to find your killer. Second of all, I do not see a reason for giving you a firearm, let alone a butter knife, without proof of your skills with one."

"Keep calm, Cherry." Said Karl, calling him by a nickname for F.N.G's (Fucking New Guys). "_Herr Opa _has to see if you have Iron in your Heart before I can put Iron in your hands. After all, What's the point of giving you a gun if you'll just drop it and run."

Rick rolled his eyes and stormed out into the February winters night. Leaving Karl rather offended at the sight before him.

"Hey Cherry! You didn't finish your beer!" Karl shouted, followed by the drunken taunts of the off duty cops.

The two veteran hired guns returned to their pints and resumed their conversation. "It seems your grunt is in need of a refresher course on who he's speaking to." Slade hissed.

"He's young, Sir." Karl replied frankly. "The youth of this new generation isn't necessarily the most cool headed. But they are brave enough for my taste."

"Stupid would be the more appropriate term to describe them, especially one who was apart of the Joker clan." Slade said contemptuously as he turned for the door. "We'll speak outside."

Karl nodded, paying for the drinks, wished the cops a good night, and walked outside to see Ricky nervously chain smoking near an alley way where Slade stood patiently at the wall near by. In training Ricky would break under some form of stress, Karl tried his best to break that habit out of the young lad in hopes of getting him ready for real combat. The boy was a good shot, maybe as good as him, but he couldn't take the stress and the chain smoking didn't help him.

He caught Ricky's attention and quickly snubbed out the cigarette in his mouth with his gloved hands. "Easy on the smokes now. Gotham isn't really the cheapest place to pick up a pack of smokes." Karl told him in a calm and brotherly.

"How the fuck am I suppose to be calm in a bar full of pigs with you flaunting your piece around like some cowboy outta a John Wayne flick?" Ricky exasperated sucking down the last bit of the cigarette before tossing it on the ground. "We ain't in Alabama! You can't just wave that box cannon around like that here. Gotham PD doesn't like anyone with a gun, not even a museum piece like that! It's either they have the guns or your going to prison to get-"

"Enough wasting time." Slade interjected, He never liked his time to be wasted. "Are we going to get along with this plan of your Karl or are we having to listen to this child throw out his excuses?"

"One moment sir." Karl told him respectfully. "Rick, just remember this one saying: It don't mean a thing."

Slade backed off with a cold smirk and a nod to Karl. Slade knew the old saying better than the two of them could ever hope to know, After all the Viet Cong were his teachers and ol' Uncle Ho was his principal. Thank the heavens for not sending him to the Hanoi Hilton...

It don't mean a god damn thing, Slade thought to himself as Karl left the saying to sink into the young Ricky Larson.

"I have an old beater down the alleyway that will take us to a more upscale sedan to fit in better in upscale Gotham." Karl told the two as he lead the two down the dark alley way to a beat up red Oldsmobile sitting near a rusty dumpster. "Our objective is just a simple intel op."

"Intel?" Ricky asked curiously.

"Inteligence. Something that you do not have." Slade snipped, "Is this it, Karl?"

As they reached the car Karl opened the passenger door and retrieved a envelope to which he handed to Slade promptly before he stormed off, The highest paid mercenary may have the highest level of training, but patients isn't one of them.

He open the file and to his surprise to see their old handler, Amanda Waller, and the CEO of Gothcorp, Ferris Boyle, speaking to one another with various Military and Private firms in the meeting hall of Gothcorp's American Firm. He flipped through the file until coming to a ripped document with a red stamp with the name "SEVENTH WAVE" imprinted at the top of the page along with one name: Codename- Lennox.

"Seventh Wave?" Slade asked curiously. "Lennox?"

"What's Gothcorp meeting with the feds for?" Ricky asked just as curious as Slade. "I thought that big shot, Boyle, was a good guy helping people and shit. Whats the word for'em?"

"Philanthropist and Humanitarian." Slade replied. "Former Philanthropist and Humanitarian until Batman found his R&D team constructing Cryogenic weapons six, almost seven, years ago. It seems he bought himself out of Blackgate..."

"More like Waller paid the tab." Karl remarked in disgust. "This man has been producing weapons for years in secret. But I could careless about some underground arms dealer. What I do care about is why Waller is meeting with Boyle and, if its for weapons, Why is she going to him?"

"Wait, Pause the game." Ricky responded with a headache of confusion. "What's Boyle making guns for and who this Waller babe?"

"No idea and you do not want to know." Karl warned him. "But we are going to learn tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow? Can't we just storm the place and take the stuff now?" Rick said, making Slade laugh at his stupidity.

"Tomorrow is the 100th Anniversary of the Norton Baseball Field here in Gotham and I doubt that a Baseball fan such as Boyle will miss such an event to make a PR ploy to better his reputation among Gotham cities Elite." Karl told him, taking out a map of Gothcorp from the glove box of the car. "Not to mention that our window into Gothcorp..."

"Threw the underground railway under Gothcorp." Slade assumed.

"The subway?" Ricky asked.

"No, Rick. Gothcorp owns an underground railway station where special trains load or deliver special projects for Gothcorps R&D department. A special rail line guarded to T with some highly paid private contractors outta Blackwater USA, People that even I shouldn't be fucking with, and enough security systems to make the whole of Fort Knox look like a joke."

"If the security is this intense, How did you get these pictures?" Slade questioned him.

"Catwoman." Karl replied bluntly. "She can get anything, but, unlike her, we don't have the gear to climb on walls. Now that is what brings me to Mr. Boyle and Norton Field. Boyle is bringing a security team from Blackwater to accompany him, mainly to protect himself from the hand of Mr. Freeze or Batman if things ever get hairy. We stay at the game and act as if we are just regulars wanting to watch the game, We take out the guards when they go for a smoke break, take the uniforms, and make our way to the maintenance tunnels located in a closed off metro tunnel in Gotham's Diamond district. Once there it's child's play unless we get made. Take the intel and get out. Maybe dig into a few of his off shore accounts while we're at it. hehe."

Ricky shook his head nervously, "Karl I don't know man... It's this Illegal? I mean like ultra illegal? Not even Falcone would fuck with Boyle... Why are we fucking with him?"

Karl didn't say a word as he popped the trunk to the beater and drew him and Slade over to him. Laying in front of them were three short barreled AKMS assault rifles, The kind used in the Terminator movies, on single point harnesses, M-67 grenades, and various other pieces of gear. It was a light loadout, but had enough firepower to get them out of any jam they might get themselves into. The thirty and forty round magazines were either clamped or taped together with electrical tape laid around their gear along with black satchel bags.

"Take a bag and put your gear in them. The AK's are on single point harnesses and can hang with in your coats. Put the mags and frags in the bag and get in. We're going to an apartment near the stadium for the night and I don't want some junkie finding my gear." Karl said as he loaded a few 'Jungle taped' magazines and the snubbed AK before getting in the drivers seat.

Slade loaded one of the Snub AK's with a forty round magazine and chambered a round before throwing it on his shoulder. "Piece of Junk." Slade remarked about the rifle. "I only use the best of the best. But It seems my skills are being wasted on sub-grade weapons for a sub-grade job with a sub-grade operative. But at least my other success story is hear." Slade remarked rudely.

Rick rolled his eyes and looked away from Slade, he scared him terribly, and looked over to a strange flower on a near by window seal. It seemed to be looking at them, so he pointed the AK at the flower. Then it simply stood straight up...

Ricky put his gun down and rubbed his eyes before looking back at the flower to see it was looking at him again. He shook his head violently before taking a seat in the back of the car.

"Something wrong Rick?" Karl asked Ricky.

"I should stop drinking..." He said half jokingly as he turned back at the flower as the car slowly lurched forward. The flower was followed them until they rounded a corner and disappearing into the darkness.

Far away from Karl and his team in the Gotham Park, Poison Ivy laid in her bed of flowers like a goddess looking down on earth from heaven with a wicked smirk on her face. Poison Ivy was once a prominent ecological scientist working for the betterment of the natural world, but soon turned to more extreme means to achieve her goals. Using a mixture of Plant and Animal DNA, She fused them together with her body and thus Poison Ivy born. The mixture of Plant DNA turned her skin a light green and her irises emerald, gave her immunity to poisons, and gave her control over plant life itself. She wore a black bodysuit covered with living plants to add to her plant motif along with her green lips and bright red hair.

"Hmmm... Mr. Boyle, Slade Wilson, Karl Dael... I wonder who else will be attending the game?" She wondered as she switched to another collection of flowers in the lush garden of Wayne Manor.

"Brucey! The game is tomorrow! I wanna go! Please please please!" The bubbly voice of Harley Quinn plead to Bruce Wayne, Her boyfriend.

"Of Course Harleen. Anything for you." Bruce replied.

Ivy's smile grew wide. "Bruce Wayne and Harley, Which means Batman will surely be there to save his Harley... An all star audience for my return to greater Gotham..."

A dark laugh echoed throughout the park as Ivy began preparations for the new day, The day of the flower.


	2. Chapter 2: Mother Nature's Fury

_**Now we have the long awaited second Chapter of Wild Flowers. Now this story is a prequel to Part 3 of the Devils Name is Arkham Series of Stories, So references to Part 1 and 2 are going to be seen if you read the two stories. This is also a Bruce and Harley pairing as well as an OC and Poison Ivy pairing fic. **_

_**I hope you all enjoy :)**_

_**With love~ Dresner**_

* * *

_**Wayne manor, 6:00pm**_

Bruce finished tucking in his white button down and tying his light blue striped tie in the mirror. The grey suit was stiff, but what could you expect from a brand new suit. His hair was perfect as was everything else about him. But he was missing one thing...

"Harley, We have only one hour until the game begins." Bruce called to the bathroom near by.

"I'm comin I'm comin!" Harleen Quinnzel replied from behind the door. "Just give a girl a minute!"

He chuckled warmly as a smirk came over his face as her Brooklyn gruff echoed throughout the room. On the near by dresser were the pictures of Bruce Wayne and his Harlequin. Even after almost a year of being together, he still couldn't believe that the Clown Princesses of Crime was now his lover. It took over seven years, two prison riots, the death of the Joker, and a siege to bring them together...

Joker... It's been almost a year since he passed a way but Bruce couldn't help but feel guilty for his demise. In all the years since this whole game began, he always restrained himself, fought his better judgement, and even saved the damn Clown on more than one occasion...

Why? Is the question he would ask himself when he returned to the life of Bruce Wayne when the sun came up as he stared outside the almost endless expanse of Gotham city from his office.

Why did he spare him? Why did he save him?

What did he know about Batman that made him so obsessed with him? Did he know about Bruce Wayne?

"_No..."_ He would whisper to himself as he laid awake in bed with Harley in his arms. "_He never cared about Bruce Wayne, It would have ruined his fun..." _

Their 'Relationship' was bound for that moment in Arkham ever sense the he first saved the Joker from falling from atop the Royal Hotel. He returned the favor shortly after... Killing his own men just so he could try to shoot himself. Nothing made sense about the Clown Prince of Crime... But deep down Bruce and him, no matter how much it ripped him apart inside, shared a common bond, a life shaking event that drove them to the brink of insanity, yet set them on two completely different paths in life...

It was a mirror almost, The Joker and himself...

Harley's soft hands rapped around his waist as the smell of perfume filled the air around him. "You ok Brucey?" Harley whispered in his ear as her hands traced across his stomach.

Her hair was golden blonde once again, a far cry from the raven black hair she wore since the death of the Joker. It blew him away to see her natural hair color once again and it sent his heart flying once more at the simple surprise. The once pain stricken blue eyes seemed to glow like diamonds in the summer sun as she looked into the mirror at the beauty before her. The tight red dress laid little to imagination, as did the lacy black thong and bra gripping her tight body. A spot on her arm drew his eyes as the faint outline of a Joker card filled him with a estrange mixture of relief and depression. He never said a word about her Joker tattoos, mainly in respect of his fallen enemy and for Harley's, not Harleen's, sake. But she quickly removed the tattoos only days after her siege at the former Sionis Steel Mill in the now closed down and sunken Arkham City mega prison.

'_Nothing is more painful than a memory...'_ The words of the Joker echoed through his mind as she kissed him on the cheek with a naughty grin.

"Thanks for taking me to the game." She whispered, "Maybe if the cameras stay away I can show you how fun handcuffs can be."

They came together for a passion fueled kiss, but a knock at the door killed the moment. "Master Bruce, We are going to be late if Madam Quinnzel does not hurry."

"Hold your nickers or whatever! I'm having a moment here!" Harley barked, Jokingly of course as Alfred began to note after Harley moved in. The girl began to grow on the Bat family, but not Jason Todd on the very very very rare moments he comes to Gotham. Bruce did not blame him or Oracle for not caring to much for his Harlequinn, After all she was once the Joker's girl.

Their he goes again... Joker...

Harley noticed his frown and turns him toward her to look into his deep brown eyes to see a man fighting a war with in himself. She saw what happens when a man going to war with himself and loses...

"Baby, it's over... J's gone now and we gotta get over him. I did." She said woefully as his eyes drew to the missing tattoo on her arm. "But I still remember him. But I had to move on, you got to move on too. We both gotta move on."

Bruce dived into Harley with a warm kiss as he ran his hands up and down her body, but before he could go any farther Alfred banged on the door once more. Harley hissed, but Bruce calmed her down as they walked out together for the car below. "Hopefully we will have time tonight after patrol." Bruce remarked.

"We _will _make time." Harley asserted with an naughty smirk.

* * *

_**Norton Field: Sometime Later **_

Karl handed the ticket master their tickets, along with a generous one hundred dollar bill not to check their satchel bags, and threw the crowded interns of the historic Norton Stadium. Norton Stadium was built in 1914, just before World War One, and expanded over time to have a capacity of over sixty thousand fans. From the outside it reminded Karl of Wrigley Field with the iconic red sigh at the front gate.

A primarily soccer, or football as the Europeans call the game, Karl enjoyed baseball to some extent because of the skill of the hitter and pitcher. But it could never beat the rush to defend your goal or charge toward the opposing teams goal with the enemy nipping at your heels. But he hated watching the games, let alone walking through the crowds.

Slade plowed throw the crows, or rather they moved out of his way. It was apart of his aura, his making. No one looked him in the eyes, or rather his eye, or crossed his path. Karl wasn't sure if they knew who he was, but even if they didn't they damn sure knew not to mess with him.

Ricky on the other hand struggled to keep up with Karl and Slade as tried to juggle his bag, hot dog, and cola as well as fight the crowds. Through the sea of people the three men emerged into the white light of the park lights and the sunset to see the ground crew putting the finishing touches on the field. The stands were already filling up as fans rushed to get to their seats before the presentation of the 100th anniversary pitch was thrown. Fresh cut grass and hotdogs filled his nose as the wind kicked up from the west pushing dark clouds toward field.

"Awe man! It might rain! The damn Gotham Knights are taking on the Metropolis Stars tonight! You only get a chance like this once in a life time!" Ricky whined as they sat down in the middle stands over looking the field and the Gotham skyline.

"A nice blanket of cover..." Karl remarked coldly.

"Second floor sky box, left side." Slade interjected, motioning his head to a near by sky box.

Ricky dropped his hotdog and pointed toward the sky box with the dumbest of looks to say: "Hey that's that Boyle schmuck!"

"Ooof!" He groaned as Slade punched him in the side to break sight with Boyle as he lorded over the crowd from the Sky box.

"Do that again and I will personally cut you into pieces." Slade growled as Ricky sat back down in his seat.

Karl looked into the Sky boxes as well to not only see Boyle, but an old friend and his girlfriend as well as they two gazed over to the field and crowd below. His eyes locked on Harley Quinn and Bruce Wayne but the two seemed to be too enthralled with themselves to notice him and his team sitting in plain sight.

_"Your losing your touch Bruce..."_ Karl thought to himself as they returned to the confines of the sky box.

Soon all attention was drawn to center field as the Mayor of Gotham, The disgraced Quincy Sharp, appeared on the field to speak to the citizens of Gotham. But some got up from the stands and removed themselves to the concession stands while Ol'Sharpie arrogantly postured on the field talking about his pride in Gotham City. Slade drew his attention toward Boyle as he appeared near the gates to the field with his low level Blackwater guards flanking him. Through their heavy coats he and Karl could see the outline of Uzi submachine guns slung under their arms and heavy caliber hand guns.

"Seems Boyle is expecting the worse." Karl remarked as Boyle took center stage on the pitchers mound.

"I would too if I knew we were here." Ricky replied as Boyle was handed the first Ball of the game.

"Move now. Taking the guards hostage should be easy if we took them by surprise on transit to the field. Attack the guards in a crowded area will be hard." Slade said.

"Waking up GCPD and Blackwater would have been the price of that little advance. At least once we bush whack them on the way out we will have Boyle, the security codes, and now access to the front door. A much better plan than going through the metro." Karl said with a wide smile at the opportunity set before him. "We'll get him once the game ends, but watch him to see if he leaves early. Those clouds are making me jumpy on that fact."

"Clouds are getting darker." Slade remarked as he looked up toward the sky.

"Ja, Real Blitzkrieg now eh?" Karl chuckled. "I love fighting in the rain."

Boyle winded up his throwing arm and threw the ball as fast as he could toward the catcher. The ball hit the catchers mitt just as a thunder rocked the stadium, making the crowd cheer and hoot wildly.

* * *

Bruce and Harley returned to the outside to see their old friend Boyle standing on the pitchers mound. Harley's dress was a little uneven and Bruce's hair was rather messy, but the smiles on their faces was all anyone needed to know what they were doing alone together in the empty skybox.

"Thanks for bring me here honey." Harley thank Bruce as she moved closer to him as Boyle signaled the start of the game.

Bruce chuckled a little as he brought her closer to him once again. "Thank you for bring joy back into my life Harleen."

"Call me Harley." She whispered kissing him on the lips. "Everyone does..."

* * *

"Lets play Ball!" Boyle shouted as the teams took the field and he crossed the field to return to his sky box.

"Gladly!" A goddess like voice echoed through out the stadium as the ground shook violently around them. Gigantic vines broke out of the center of the field, cracking the ground in two like a earthquake and sending the players on both teams into the obsess below Gotham. The thorn vines ripped people in the stands in pieces as they raced through the stadium on Ivy's orders. Fly traps devoured unsuspecting and fleeing as they broke through the bottom of the stands as more vines covered the arena.

From the center of the field a gigantic oak tree pieced the ground and blocked out all the light from the stadium lights and the Gotham skyline. From it's center a beautiful green skinned goddess with red hair appeared from the branches as the vines took over the field.

The living attendants of the game scurried for their lives as the vines and plants gobbed and sliced the slower attends. Their screams echoed through the rafters and stands only to be muffled by the roars of ferocious fauna that came out of the ground bellow...

"Poison Ivy." The three men and the happy couple in the sky box said in unison.

From the stands, the three man team drew their weapons as the man eating plants drew closer to them, opening fire in all directions to halt the advance of the plants toward the civilians. "FUCK!" Ricky yelled as one of the plants nicked his leg.

"Quit bitching and fight!" Karl shouted as he emptied a magazine into a fly trap.

"This area is getting to hot!" Slade shouted as he cut incoming vines with a trench knife.

"Then we better find Boyle before that crazy bitch Ivy feeds him to her plants!" Karl shouted back as he leaped over a section of chairs to fight off the incoming razor vines.

Slade grabbed the rookie Rick by the collar and dragged him as he followed Karl toward where Boyle was last scene before Ivy attack.

"Forward!" Karl shouted as he fired burst after Burst with the snub AKM, fighting for his life against Mother Nature's bastards as they tried to devour him and his men. They managed to find their way toward the tunnels leading out of field and into the parking lot.

* * *

Bruce and Harley were taken by complete surprise by Ivy's attack and the unwelcome appearance of Karl Dael and Deathstroke. He quickly called Alfred for an equipment drop for him to fight Ivy and her plants, but after a quick argument with Harley, he ordered another drop for her as well. But to much of his annoyance, the storm prohibited the deployment of the Batwing and Ivy's super tree prevented a direct deployment.

"I do apologize sire, but you will have to return to the batcave." Alfred informed him.

"On it. Keep the car ready." Bruce snored along with Harley as they ran for their lives out of the sky box and to the car as the vines began to break through the walls in an attempt to rip them to pieces.

* * *

Ivy was brimming with joy as he plants broke through the grounds and slaughtered the flesh walkers, Humans, below. Her joy was boasted even more once the heavy rain fell from the heavens to feed her TITAN fueled plants on their blood orgy. The extra storage of TITAN in the ruins of Arkham City, some floating near her Arkham City home, turned her plants into beasts ready for a fight. But the blood letting here was only a start as Ivy had yet to unleash her ultimate plan...

As the rain feed her plants, the oak tree began to bloom with estrange flowers on the ends of it's branches. The flowers were red and spotted with yellow dots that began to exert a strange green mist into the air around the Stadium. The gas was a special compound she had slaved on for over a year since Hugo Strange killed her special plant with in his goods vault. The compound itself consisted of special spores that changes the genetic make up of any mammal to that of a plant, turning skin into bark, blood into chlorophyll, and leading to a complete and total transformation into Ivy's personal slave.

But that is if you are lucky enough to survive the excruciating pain of the transformation...

"Bring me the Batman!" She commanded her plants, sending out the vines and man eating plants into Gotham like a green plague seeking out the man that she believed to have murdered her beloved plant. "Bring him to me so I may begin cleansing the earth of the plague that is humanity once and for ALL!"

Her voice echoed throughout Gotham as he plants grew and expanded their control over Gotham, Killing every human that wasn't immune or wearing a gas mask as her plants tighten their grip on Gotham's neck.

Karl, Ricky, and Slade contemplated ending the mission completely once they found the torso of a half eaten Ferris Boyle in the mouth of a dead Venus fly trap in the parking lot of Norton field. But they didn't have time to chat once the green cloud of gas began to over flow from the walls of Stadium and into Gotham city. They raced to the car once they heard the horrible screams of hundreds of people as the spores began to change them into plants before them. They leaped into their car and sped off toward the highway and toward Karl's other loft in Bludhaven.

* * *

_**Bludhaven, Karl's Loft, 10:00pm-**_

The Bludhaven loft was much larger and in better shape than Karl's main apartment in Gotham. The reason being that this loft was more or less the barracks for the 9th Company when they began the Arkham City operation last year. Four bedrooms, four bathrooms, two dens, and a full kitchen in Bludhaven safer section near the coast of the Gotham river with the sister city in full view. Several beds filled the bedrooms except Karl's master bedroom, known as the Commanders Quarters, for the various members of the Company who operated in the United States or awaited marching orders to various war torn nations across the world.

Besides the bunks, A makeshift medical station, A library, Bar, and an arms locker made up the rest of the loft.

In the den sat a shaken Ricky, Cool headed Slade, and a smoking Karl as they watched the evening news on Poison Ivy's take over of the city from a helicopter camera.

"This is Vicky Vale reporting above West Gotham as the super villain known as 'Poison Ivy', a notorious Eco-Terrorist and metahuman, has launch a full scale attack on Gotham city with her plants. Her aims are unknown at this time, but Mayor Sharp insists that it is an insidious plot of Genocide. Poison Ivy's plants are now racing across Gotham at unimaginable speed killing everyone from GCPD, National Guard, and even helpless civilians as they try to escape Gotham."

Graphic images of cattle like slaughter at the vines of Ivy's monstrous plant life followed by the overgrowth which consumed all forms of buildings and destroying the roads as grass replaced concrete, trees replaced lampposts, and the full return to Nature from the hands of Man.

Karl was speechless at the rate of advance and the achievements Ivy's plants were gaining in land in such little time... Impressed and rather jealous could have been the words to describe his view on Pamela 'Poison Ivy' Isley progress in taking over the city. It was inevitable that she would launch her attack on Gotham as retribution for her incarceration in Arkham, She made a promise to him once he told her about the TITAN containers floating in the sea near her own hotel. Even as the people of Gotham slowly turned into fauna before the eyes of millions on national television, Karl couldn't help but smirk in awe at her plan as it came together before the eyes of millions.

"Beautiful isn't it?" He asked himself openly as if no one else was there.

"People are dying like dogs. How is this beautiful?" Ricky exclaimed at the outrageous comment.

"What he is talking about is how Poison Ivy is attacking the city." Slade explained. "Flawless, unexpected, merciless-"

"All by design." Karl interjected. "Just as I predicted..."

Karl turned toward the others and with a dark expression said: "Now we have a permanent window into Gothcorp..."


	3. Chapter 3: The Green Mile

_**Alright everyone here is Chapter 3. Now this chapter really gets things kicking and not only that but a little smut toward the end with Ivy. Thank you my friend for reviewing and I hope more people review my work. **_

_**22 days till I shipout and I hope I finish this by them, But that does not mean a drop in quality. **_

_**Enjoy :)**_

_**With Love ~Dresner**_

* * *

_**Five days after Ivy's attack:**_

A week had past since Ivy attack took Gotham by surprise. Her progress was astonishing to say the least as over 40% of Gotham City was covered in a thick jungle of vines, grasslands, exotic fauna, and man eating plants. Skyscrapers were either consumed in an entanglement of vines or simply returned to earth at Ivy's will, roads turned into fields, parking lots into meadows, Metro tunnels into caves, and a rapid return to the jungle. Ivy's gas accelerated the progress by as the unfortunate civilians who didn't make it out of Ivy's Zone, Known as the Green Mile, during the initial attack and who's corpses didn't survive the DNA re-writing effects of her toxin acted as jump off points for her plants to expand on the city.

But the New Jersey National Guard and GCPD officers acted swiftly thanks to elements of the U.S Army's Chemical Corps in supplying NBC (Nuclear Biological Chemical) Gear and decontamination equipment to Gotham in order to combat the spread of Ivy's toxin. By the use of high grade fans, incendiary weaponry, and long retired stockpiles of 'Agent Orange', The National Guard and GCPD managed to contain the spread of Ivy's control. The majority of Gotham's population had been relocated to Metropolis and Bludhaven, while the wealthy elite migrated to higher grade cities in other east coast cities or along the west coast to ride out the storm.

Ivy treated this ruthlessly and responded by turning the survivors of her toxin into plant like humanoids against the National Guard and GCPD task force to destroy the gigantic fans and helicopters deploying Agent Orange. But due to the lack of more 'Human' species of followers, lack of tactical knowledge, and Ivy's violent mood swings lead to failure after inevitable failure. Though the sheer numbers of her 'Children', Man like spore monsters, gave the joint task force a run for their money as did the steady trickle of male and female cops, soliders, and criminal elements that fell for Poison Ivy's siren spores that turned them into her slaves. But the expert combat training of the National Guard and the leadership of former U.S Army solider Police Commissioner James Gordon managed to stabilize the front line, but not advance it.

Stalemate was the only word that could describe the situation between Ivy's forces and the Joint Military and Police force on both sides of the Green Mile...

From the reports on television to forward recon, Slade and Karl began to really understand the situation at hand. But not all of it as the factor of Batman, The Bat family, and Harley Quinn made the situation harder to read. The Bat family mostly ran Rescue operation for isolated National Guard, Police, and Civilians stuck inside of the Green Mile, combating the spread of Ivy's plants, and gathering samples in order to create a compound to fight the spread of Ivy's plants. Crime was still factor in Gotham, but that was delegated to Robin and Nightwing while Harley and Batman combated Ivy. Though their progress was sub-par at best, Karl was still weary on wither or not Batman knew of his return to Gotham or of his plans. But Slade insisted that the Dark Knight was to busy fighting Poison Ivy to care about their little operation.

The heavy rain stayed over Gotham for almost a week now, leading to the streets turning into miniature creeks with almost six inches of stagnate rain sitting on the streets of the ghost city. A perfect blanket of cover for Karl, Slade, and Ricky as they watched a column of National Guardsmen readying for deployment into the Metro system. Each of the twelve solider wore a Olive drab chemical suit with a gas mask, looking almost like Aliens, carrying a M-16A4 or M4A1 Assault rifle, Remington Shotguns, or MP-5 SMG's with under barrel flashlight to see in the dark confines of the metro. The three men watched the Guardsmen for a period of about three days since the attack to get a feel of their movements and routines, even stealing three sets of NBC gear, Police issue M468 Assault rifles, 'Willie Pete' Phosphorous grenades, Army issue Machetes, extra filters, and incendiary bullets, to prepare for the incursion into the Green Mile.

But now was the time to act swiftly and decisively...

Twelve men entered the metro station...

Twelve men met their maker at the hands of Karl, Rick, and Slade...

The trio moved quickly toward the metro line under the guise of National Guardsmen running a routine patrol. Weapons at the ready, they moved on through the dimly lite metro station until reaching an empty platform. Karl drew a PDA from his kit to pull up the map of the metro system while Slade and Rick covered the exits.

"Gothcorp's secret entrance is only two miles deep in the Green through a collection of maintenance tunnels." Karl barked as he put the PDA back into his pocket. "Check your filters and masks, god knows if these fucking things saw action during the Gulf War and have been sitting in a box for almost thirty years."

He looked down the tunnel into almost endless darkness, fearful of what was lying in wait for them. Some of the thing he had seen Ivy conger up in such little time shook him to the core...

As cold blooded as he was, He never made a man suffer for his crimes... A quick death, a Soldiers death, was the only way he knew how to kill...

But to turn people in beasts if they are 'Lucky' enough to survive the transformation... Insane...

_'What are you waiting for...? Come to me...' _

"Karl." Rick said, Putting his hand on his shoulder. "You OK, man?"

The fear in his voice could be felt through his suit, Something that Karl could even share with green soldier. Karl took off his gas mask to rub his eyes...

"I swear I'm hearing things..." Karl whispered to him.

"What are ya talkin about?" Rick asked him compassionately.

"Fucking Ivy must be playing with my head, I don't know. Tunnels like this always fuck with my head..." Karl told him reluctantly as he pulled a package of cigarettes from his kit.

"You afraid of tight spaces, sir?" Rick asked with a chuckle, surprised that the great and powerful Karl Dael was scared of something.

After a deep hit off of his cigarette Karl responded rather strangely as he gazed in the deep unknown of the metro tunnel. "Tunnels remind us how lonely we really are... How confined our world really is..."

He turned toward him and to Ricky surprise he saw a side of Karl he would have never imagined, The Human side. "I don't think I'm going to make it this time. But I guess I better be thankful for now..."

"Station is clear. We better get a move on." Slade barked from the other side of the station.

"Slade's right... We should be getting a move on." Rick said nervously as the heavy foot steps of Slade Wilson echoed throughout the metro.

Karl took one last look at the light of the metro station, The last bastion of safety in this dying city, in a cloud of smoke. His eyes diverted to the cigarette as it nervously shook in his hand. "He-he, I guess I better savior this one..." He joked nervously as he put his mask on before taking his rifle off his back and cradled it in his arms.

He flicked the spent butt of the cigarette on to the main line to see if the lines were still active with electricity, but nothing happened. It was safe for them to walk on the rails...

"I'll take point." Slade told them as he took the lead.

"You don't have the map." Rick shouted.

Slade turned toward him to stare him down, but Karl jumped in front of him and handed him the PDA. "Lets not let seniority compromise this operation..."

Slade groaned darkly as his hands tightened on his rifle as he contemplated shooting Ricky for his lack of respect and Karl for merely being in front of him... But Slade turned his back to them and began to make his way into the darkness of the Metro tunnel.

Karl watched him as he slowly moved on without them. "What are you waiting for Ricky?" Karl asked Ricky, looking at him blankly before slowly moving forward with Deathstroke.

Ricky jumped down onto the tracks as well and slowly, yet reluctantly, followed his senior officers into the unknown... Toward the Green Mile...

As the three men made their way through the darkness, a young girl with Blonde hair in a red and black biker like leather attire clutching a baseball bat and Glock 18 machine pistol in her gloved hands. She didn't wear a gas mask, she didn't need one. Ivy gave her the means to operate, after all she was the one to give her the shot that made her immune to her charms and chemicals.

"Bats, It's Harls." Harley Quinn whispered into her ear bud microphone. "The boys are heading into the Green. Whatcha want me to do hun?"

"Keep your distance and stay alive. Robin and I are six blocks away from Gothcorp. Radio me when they exit the Metro." Batman replied professional. "And Harley..."

"Yes snookums?" Harley asked cutely.

"Be careful, Please. And don't call me snookums." Batman replied.

"Yes sir baby cakes!" She giggled as she cartwheeled down the tunnel behind the three man team.

* * *

_**Two Hours, Deep within the Green Mile-**_

As the miles grew, so did the green as nature slowly retook the world from man. The metro tunnels began to transform into dark caves rarely lite by dim nocturnal mushrooms that glowed a ghostly light blue. Vines covered the tracks and stretched across and through the walls only added to the ambiance of the tunnel. But soon the crushing loneliness and claustrophobia of the tunnel began to take a toll on Ricky and Karl as they went deeper and deeper into the metro. The cold silence and mushroom light gave way to faint moon light and searchlights as the metro gave way to the sky tracks, above ground railways, coated in vines and flora.

"Fuck. Intel was wrong, This is suppose to be our entrance to the maintenance tunnels." Karl cursed. "Fucking cat fucked me over!"

"Should have paid her more." Slade replied neutrally as he checked over the sides of the elevated tracks for enemies. The streets began to look more and more like grass lands and streams rather than roads anymore.

"Should have fucked her more like it. Hehe." Ricky sneered.

"Ain't that the truth." Karl chuckled. "I wounder if she goes commando under that suit of hers."

Slade rolled his eye and snatched the PDA from Karl's hands. "This isn't the Barracks, keep you head in the mission." He scolded him. "Your intel is bad. Very bad. The only relevant piece is the location of Gothcorp itself. Did you personal do your intelligence gathering or did you allow that dominatrix do it for you?"

Karl got with in breathing distance of Slade to make his point, "A little harsh to say, isn't Slade? For your information I scouted ahead days in advance just in case that kitty decided to fuck me over."

"Oh really then? Did that involve allowing her to walk all over you, take you for a fool, and tried to allow us to wander around aimlessly in a metro tunnel? Or did her cunt do all the thinking for you?" Slade responded Harshly, pushing Karl aside like a child.

Karl turned Slade and grabbed him by the neck, but Slade quickly over powered him, threw him on the tracks, and shoved the barrel of the M468 into his face with one hand. Slade wouldn't hesitate to shoot his apprentice, the Cherry, and bury the whole operation in the confusion of Green Mile. No one would miss Karl or Ricky, after all they were expendable mercenaries with no families or loved ones to return to. Who would care if these hired guns died like dogs?

"The fuck are you doing asshole?" Ricky shouted nervously as he aimed his rifle at Deathstroke, But Slade drew a long barreled desert eagle with his free hand and aimed at Ricky.

"He's acting the fool." Karl replied harshly to which Slade responded by pressing the barrel of his rifle tightly against his mask.

"I'm not here to play games." Slade shouted irately.

"Neither am I, Slade, but if your tired of playing games then. Why don't you just dust us, Right here, Right now?" Karl asked him in a harsh, yet excited tone. Slade narrowed his gaze on Karl to see that his arms were out and away from his body, a sign that he wasn't reaching for a hidden weapon. He knew Karl was known for concealing knives and sidearms in his tall jackboots, one of the many reasons why Karl preferred them over more modern footwear. Through the mask he could sense Karl's excitement, something he never got out of an enemy staring down the barrel of gun, and it thoroughly distributed him. Usual when he had the jump on a trained enemy, no matter how battle harden they were, there was always a trace of fear in their eyes.

It didn't matter if they were Vietcong, Spetsnaz Commandos, Special Forces, or hell even the Teen Titans themselves. But Karl was something all together a different beast... Just like Batman and himself.

Karl wanted to die, he longed to die, He welcomed death as an old friend... One of the reasons why he chose him to be his apprentice in the first place: Karl had nothing to loose.

He couldn't do it. No. Not right now. There was more riding on this little 'Operation' than Karl could possibly think of...

Slade turned toward Ricky who was slowly putting distance between him and the heavy caliber handgun clutched in his hands. Suddenly the rifle was kicked out of his hands and found himself staring down at a collection of Ivy's spore monsters patrolling the grounds below the tracks.

"Keep your head in the mission, SIR." Karl whispered intensely as he stepped on his back with the barrel of his own sidearm against his head as he watched the monsters scurry across the grass like snakes. With in a moments notice the beast disappeared and Karl kicked him over on to his stomach with the gun still trained on him.

"Do that shit again and I won't hesitate unlike you." Karl hissed, throwing the pistol back to his master. "Get your shit together, we're going through the front fucking door and no one is going to stop us. Not you, not me, not Rick, and not the god damn Batman either. Asses and elbows ladies!"

Karl lead the way down via a collection of vines strung up to the tracks from the ground below. Ricky ignored Slade and followed Karl closely in an attempt to get away from him. But Slade didn't care, he never did. The only thing that mattered was the money and someone high up was making sure he was compensated for the hell he was going through...

* * *

**_Poison Ivy's Garden, Norton Field:_**

A large lustful smirk came over her face as she watched the three men make their way to Gothcorp with Harley nipping at their tails. The queen of the earth, as she called herself, always enjoyed watching the humans fight and bicker. It only served to feed her god like opinion of herself as she had no human friends, unless you counted Harley when she would try to leave the Joker. Back when he was alive of course...

But she wasn't above her human need for the warm touch of another human, wither they be a man or a woman, Friendly or sexually. Neither was she above flirting with a man, a true man like that of Batman. As much as it killed her to admit it, or rather consider, she was jealous of Harley Quinn. She had both Bruce Wayne and Batman at her finger tips...

She cared nothing for Bruce, but Batman was a different story. Batman was everything she emulated in a man, a true man, one of the last remaining 'Alpha Males' with both the brains, the Brawn, and the will to be called a true man. Batman was something legends were made out of.

The only other man she could possibly think off that could have matched Batman on her scale would have to be Karl. From what she just saw unfold, her assumptions were rightly placed. Deathstroke could have been considered a close contender to be even thought of as an equal to Batman, but he was an opportunist and a manipulator. Two things she despised the most in humanity...

"Strong. Loyal. Cunning. Fearless. Tenacious. A little crazy..." Ivy said to herself as she watched them through the mystic force that was 'The Green'. Her lair was settled within the gigantic oak tree that took root in the middle of Norton Field only days ago. With in it was an almost fairy tale like home made of vines and tree limbs. A small garden as well as windows to the outside and the mystic 'Green' portals gave her a view of the Green Mile.

"Handsome too..." She giggled as she took off her black body suit and plants to reveal her alluring green hour glass figure in all its glory. "He'll make a wonderful solider..."

With the snap of a finger a vine brought her a mirror and soon Ivy began to pose and tantalize herself in the mirror as she thought about the man known as the 'Black Hunter.' She ran her hands through her soft red hair and down her neck until she reached her beautiful perky breasts and her cute nips.

"Maybe my personal guard... or my toy..." She said, Turning around in the mirror she ran her hands to her sides and hips like a belly dancer until spanking her tight ass hard. She looked over her shoulder with a naughty expression and a dirty smile.

"Eat your heart out Catwoman." She said with sass as she walked to her bed to release some stress.


	4. Chapter 4: Nostalgia

_**Here's Chapter 4, Thanks for the reviews and the views. I make reference to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series of games and to Grumpydrawer's story "****Glaceatic Park" and his Gigagen corporation. **_

_******I hope you all are enjoying my version of Poison Ivy, I'm taking more from the humanistic side of her from the Comics. She really is a good character, just like Harley, but she just has a diferant way of going at things.**_

_******Enjoy :) 16 days till ship out for the Army :D**_

_******With Love ~Dresner**_

* * *

With Deathstroke taking point in front of them, Karl and Rick covered the flanks as they pushed down the streets of the Green Mile. The hollowed out buildings and abandon cars took the place of the once crowded streets of Gotham. Where people use to flood the streets gave way to vines, flowers, and bush. Where automobiles use to roam the world of endless concrete disappeared and in its place came Mother Nature and her children. Miles of Concrete covered under sheets of green.

The only place Karl could possibly relate to the Green Mile was Chernobyl and Pripyat, Ukraine, Know by the lost souls who managed to survive it's misery as the Zone. The Green Mile shared a lot in common with the The Zone, even the horrors of the Green Mile seemed to mimic the Zone. Savage beasts lurking around every corner, The world itself is just as dangerous as the mutants, supplies are scarce, and the over whelming loneliness this scattered and cursed world.

The beauty of it all did not escape Karl's eyes, who couldn't see the beauty in Gotham? Large and small trees took root in once cluttered parking lots reminded him of the seemingly endless forests he would venture in his youth in Alabama. The simple sight of the wild kudzu scaling up the modern apartments and lofts filled his mind with the warmth of nostalgia as memories of abandon shacks and homes in the forests and hunting grounds of his home came to mind. He wiped his mask as the rain seemed to cease for the first time in hours since they left the metro. The intel more than wrong, as was the map, but that was debate able as once invincible skyscrapers were pulled down to earth by Ivy in a fit of rage over the last few days. Road sighs torn down and streets either blocked or unable to transverse due to the ruble and thick overgrowth. The machetes became dull quickly as the constant slicing of vines and brush became just as frequent as breathing itself, even the long bayonets of M16's seemed to fall apart at the never ending brush. The trio finally decided to simply cross through building to avoid the main streets and reach other areas, a tactically sound idea especially after the sight of larger brutish human like figures the size of Killer Croc but covered in limbs and mushrooms with demonic faces and yellow eyes.

"We should have hit Gothcorp by now. I mean, Damn it isn't hard to find a big ass building." Ricky complained as the trio came to a large intersection flooded with abandon cars and fallen trees.

"Ivy tore down a few of those eye sores in the last couple of days to stop the weekend warriors and the boys in blue. Pretty smart, but that didn't help the South Koreans in Seoul." Karl replied, referring to a time when the South Koreans would destroy the pilings on their larger buildings to crush the North Koreans during the Second Korean war. "Gothcorp might be one of them, but if she then we better expect trouble in the lower levels or worse."

"What could be worse than this?"

"This could all be just a huge waste of my time." Slade remarked coldly as he scanned around for any landmarks that would lead them to Gothcorp.

"Quit bitching." Ricky snapped at him, propping his rifle on shoulder lazily.

Slade turned around to strike Ricky to the ground to assert himself, but the sound of crashing metal and growing vines sent the men fleeing toward a near by abandon Coffee shop on the corner passed an over turned bus. Flying through the brush like moonshiners hiding from the law, The men took up positions behind decaying coffee tables and the cashiers counter to shield themselves from the gaze of whatever was coming down the street. Their venture into the Green Mile bared no conflict, besides between themselves, only a never ending game of Cat & Mouse with Ivy's monstrous defiance of the gods.

Not a single round had been fired in anger or defense from their rifles, and the Trio wanted to keep it that way...

Getting 'Made' in a secluded zone, surrounded by enemies, Both Foreign and Domestic, Low on Ammo, and at each others throats, would only add to the already hopeless operation.

Karl laid his back against the cashier counter with Ricky at his side. The boy was young, reminded him of his self back when he did his first mission of the Order in France all those years ago. Fresh in country, wide eyed, scared shit-less, and the overwhelming urge to prove himself to the more harden members that he could fight with the best of them. He smirked a little as Rick popped his head out from behind the cover to aim his rifle at the dead city at whatever was coming. He checked his magazine to see if the special bullets were feeding correctly in the magazine. The tips were laced with a phosphorous like compound that would break through the thick bark or skin to burning the floral from the inside out. Special ammo always seemed to miss feed or jam up a rifle, even the old reliable AK series of rifles seemed to have trouble feeding ammo like this. Uncertainty was something that shook Karl's nerves even though he lived in it, one of the reasons why he was a smoker.

"Rick." Karl spoke in a whisper with a pack of cigarettes in his hand. "Ease your nerves. Have a smoke."

Ricky's eyes gave off the feeling of confusion and surprise at his offer, but Karl only chuckled as he attached the drinking tube on the side of the gas mask and started smoking through the tube. "To easy right?" Karl chuckled as Ricky did the same.

"*Cough* *Cough* How do you even do this?" Ricky asked him as Karl let the smoke ease out of the front of the mask.

"Practice, not to mention I lived out of one of these for a few months in Ukraine. Except it was much easier out of the PMK the Order gave me! Hopefully you'll get use to it if you decided to stay after this. Thank you for coming, I need all the help I could get for this one." Karl replied calmly.

"No problem sir," Ricky responded as he began to get use to the smoke in his mask. "You know you didn't have to take me with you when Arkham went to hell."

"Would you have rather stayed here and served time in Blackgate?" Karl replied seriously.

"No! I mean- Uh"

"I'm giving you a hard time Rick, ease up." Karl said jokingly. "It's the least I could do for you since you helped my men out at the theater and me at the Mill. A little training here and there never hurt no one, well maybe the sorry lot we face eh? He-he."

Ricky chuckled warmly with Karl as they began to reminisce about training in the unforgiving heat of the Southern United States. The two were almost like Father and Son as they laugh and joked. Slade could see the comradeship was strong between the two and for good reason. In Battle, soliders become family and would do anything to protect their brothers in the face of enemy.

But Slade didn't care anymore, even your own brothers would betray you when pushed to the brink. Or if the price was right...

He rolled his eye and kept his focus on the street as the ground began to shake as a large figure ruffly the size of a two double decker buses began to march down the street. The figure was made out of a mixture of tree bark and vines with dark green eyes that seemed to illuminate where ever it set its gaze: A Goliath.

The Goliath lurched forward with two small creatures called Brutes, Human like figures with green skin, demonic faces, black eyes, and covered in moss, at his sides for protection. The Brutes climbed on top of the derelict buses and lifted their heads into the air as if they were wolves trying to pick up the scent of a herd of mule deer. To much of their luck, another blanket of rain covered their scent and made both sides vision next to nothing.

* * *

"Hmmm hiding like rats?" Ivy asked herself out loud as she watched them through the green. "Spare them, I want to see how far the hunter goes in my forest. Maybe he will find his game before the wolf shows his true colors."

With the cast of her hand she sent the Goliath and the Brutes away toward the center of the Green mile, sparing the under equipped men from a fate worse than death.

She cast a jaundice eye on Deathstroke and Rick. Ivy knew of Deathstroke before he became what he was today, The green spoke of his time in Vietnam and his crimes against all of plant life. He was a strong warrior, but he was an opportunist with no concept of morality or the basic love for something of his own creation: I.E his daughter, whom he gave a rare form of cancer, and his apprentice Karl. He was nothing but a parasite in her eyes.

Ricky was just a lost lad without any form of aim in his life. A lost boy that shouldn't be playing in the garden, just like Batman. His comradeship with Karl gave him some slack with Ivy, but if he dared to commit a crime against nature, even the minute, She wouldn't hesitate to end him.

But for the Black Hunter, She gave her blessing. Ivy knew a lot about him, mainly due to her own time in the Gigagen Corporation, the primary beneficiary of the Brimstone Society, as one of the many ecological scientists employed by the Corporation. Long ago she was simply Pamela Isley and Karl Dael was simply Karl. The two would exchange glares, but nothing more. Deep down she felt that their was something more to those deep green eyes than what appeared before her. She remembered the a day when he came into the lab at Doctor Maganason, The CEO and founder of the Gigagen Corporation, side regarding a botanical project at Site C. The conversation was merely a blur as she only remembered seeing the tale and well built Karl in his trade mark long black trench coat and black field cap. A slight smile was on his face that day, maybe it was for her or maybe his latest assignment was somewhere he would enjoy going that time around.

Who knew? Maybe she was simply having a brief moment of humanity before she found her calling in life... Before she became Poison Ivy... Before he became the Black Hunter...

He earned his nickname for his coat and his reputation for his relentless tracking down his targets like a big game hunter. But some say he took his name from an infamous figure who's name sent chills into the hearts of both the friend and foe alike on the cold and unforgiving Russian Front. Others just simply say nothing in fear that the Black Hunter would be after them next...

The limited amount of small talk the two had seemed to yield nothing between the two, but Ivy felt as if he was a little warmer with her than the rest of the Gigagen staff in the Botanical and Ecological department. She kicked herself over and over again like a shy high school girl crushing on the dark and mysterious loner, it wasn't in her nature to melt at the sight of a man. But it was something about tall, dark, handsome, and brooding men that drove her wild. One of the reasons why her and Harley made such great friends.

Harley... She thought to herself as she watched the trio of men continue on toward Gothcorp. Through another one of her portals into the Green, she saw Harley watching them from afar. Ivy could see the once repugnant Joker tattoos were gone, as were the once evident bruises both on her body and in her mind. The Green allowed Ivy to see many things...

Including inside the soul of those touched by the Green. Harley, being Ivy's one and only human friend, was injected with a special concoction that allowed her to become semi super human with increased strength, endurance, and the ability to survive in contaminated areas. As well as resistance to all forms of poisons including Ivy's toxic touch. This little boast allowed Ivy to see into Harley's heart and mind, allowing her to become closer to her than some could ever be with another. Albeit that Bruce and Batman had an even closer connection that even Ivy could ever hope for!

Harley was finally at peace with herself and Ivy couldn't help but hold a large responsibility for this. After all she was the main person rooting her on to finally dump the Joker and move on to someone worth her time and wouldn't beat the hell outta her for no reason. Though it was a long road to recovery for the Harlequin, especially since Joker's death, a day that Ivy cherishes like no other, following the fuck up at the steel mill. But Harley soon moved on with Bruce Wayne...

A large smile and a tear fell from her eye as she saw some much progress from the once love sick harlequin to the now strong and free woman known mostly a Harleen by the underworld out of fear, dread, and respect. It amazed Ivy every time she saw her out in the night or when she would come looking for her in the Gotham's central park to be in her presence now. Harleen was better now, still a little bit psycho, but had made a recovery in all most record time.

"Hmmm..." She thought out loud as she watched Harley. Then it hit her.

Ivy snapped her fingers and a large collection of vines opened a gate way via the Green to Harley's position. With in seconds she was taken to the street where Harley was watching Karl, Slade, and Karl with binoculars.

"Harls?" Ivy asked her, making Harley jump.

"Red! I was just-"

"I know why your here and I don't care. I just want to check on you, I haven't seen you since Arkham. How you been Harley girl?" Ivy asked in a sisterly tone.

Harley caught herself and regained her composer as she read Ivy's body language. Red gave off a friendly feel, but Harley had to be careful not to piss her off. "I've been fine. I guess you know all about me now do ya red?"

'More than you know Harley girl' Ivy thought to herself with a smirk. "Only a little. Bruce Wayne is a real catch Harls, especially since you left Joker." Ivy told her with a warm smile.

Harley gave a sigh when she heard Joker's name, but she smiled at Ivy's approval. "Thanks Ivy. He's a real sweetie and I think maybe one day if you find a nice fella we can double date! Wouldn't that be fun?" Harley exclaimed in her usual bubbly tone.

Ivy's smile grew wide and then faded away as she remembered the men and the wolf among unsuspecting cattle. "It would... But Harleen I have to warn you. A wolf is hiding in the field and the Hunters are walking into his trap. You have to stop him..." Ivy warned her as she opened a portal back to her new home. "If the Black Hunter is wounded, bring him to me... Please..."

Harley threw her hand on her hip and gave a little sigh, "Awe Red! You catchin feelings again!" She chuckled.

Ivy rolled her eyes and slowly walked toward the portal, but felt a warm hug from behind. She looked over her shoulder to see Harley embracing her, "Don't worry Red, I got ya back."

Ivy smiled and turned around to return the hug, "Thanks Harls... And I'm really proud of you. Maybe one day we can take up that double date..."

Harley broke the hug and asked the question: "Why are you doing this Ivy?"

Ivy simply turned her back and walked through the portal without a word said. Harley whined but soon remembered her mission, or rather Oracle bitched in her ear to keep track of them. But she couldn't help but wonder, What was up with Ivy?


	5. Chapter 5: Wolfs Lair

_**Alright everyone, It's coming down to the wire and I see a Lemon on the horizon. So keep your trousers on! Here's more action and some Bman & HQ bits later on. I ship out soon so the chapters might be poster earlier. Enjoy this piece and remember to read and review!**_

_**With Love ~Dresner **_

* * *

_**Gothcorp Lobby:**_

The thrashing of brush and clawing of vines gave way to the foliage covered lobby of Gothcorp once mighty skyscraper, now nothing more than a collection of concrete, Iron, and Sheetrock scattered in all directions on Gotham's dead streets. The remaining six floors allowed the building to stay hidden under the shadows of the larger Skyscrapers like that of Wayne Enterprises only to be found once the plant life was douched in thick concrete dust from its collapse. Mother Nature wasted no time taking Gothcorp into her grip...

Modern interior complete with the most lavish of decor such as black marble columns, ivory covered cross sections, marble tile floor, and other expensive examples of grand showmanship to which men in $10,000 suits would stroll by without a second thought as they go to high pressure meetings on the top floor with Mr. Boyle himself. But now the grand display was replaced by vines, flowers, and brush as the world of man slowly returned to the jungle.

Deathstroke finally cut through the vines to allow the team to fan out and check the corners for lurking beasts in the darkness. They spread out with rifles at the ready in a triangle like formation to bring to bare as much firepower as possible if engaged. They eased forward at a slow, yet firm, pace with barrels forward and tactical lights on. Rain seeped through the ceiling and dropped upon the team and the leaves around them, leaving only the sound of their heavy breathing and the echo of droplets hitting the leaves of various exotic plants. Slade's already high strong senses were thrown into over drive as flashbacks of the hard pressed jungle fighting in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

The jungle was where Slade Wilson became a man, this was his element...

"It seems going up will be an issue." Karl told them.

"What gave you that idea? The missing floors?" Slade replied Harshly.

Karl rolled his eyes, "Our best bet is to go underground, to the R&D skunk works below. Their should be some evidence to gather, maybe a computer or two to rip."

"Knowing are luck the fucking plants took'em" Ricky replied negatively.

A faint crack of a branch triggered a deadly response as Slade quickly fired an aimed burst into brush filed waiting room, shattering the glass and sending a lurking brute into a screaming death. Soul shattering howls filled the building as the rumble of fore legged beasts shook the floors around them.

Karl motioned to take cover behind the heavy reception desk. The three dived behind the heavy black marble desk and to their surprise found the half eaten corpses of Gothcorp's security detail laying backs to the wall with missing hands and skin from the feasting infestation of ungodly beasts. Slade topped off a fresh magazine into the M4 like it was second nature as he threw his back against the desk. Ricky peaked over the side with rifle at the ready as the more brutes came screaming out of the wood work like cockroaches only to run screaming into the night. But some crawled on the walls and sniffed around the room, taking the scent of freshly cut vine by cold steel...

Rick looked back to see Karl training his sights on a brute as it crawled along the high ceilings like a spider tracing for a new web. "Don't turn your back to them..." Karl whispered to him, urging him to turn back toward the enemy.

Rick eased his head forward...

The blood curdling scream of an angry brute filled the halls as a brute launched itself from a near by hall and tackled the ground. Thrashing with his claws, the beast ripped Rick's filter off and damaged his suit, aiming to cut his throat for an easy kill. But Karl threw himself at the brute taking him down to the ground and beat it to the dirt with the brass-knuckle grip of the trench knife. Slade opened fire at any and all mutants that reared their head above the counter, but Ricky was to busy trying to find an extra filter to replace his broken one. He struggled to open his side pouch to retrieve another, but he panicked as the sight of a large rip in his NBC suit revealed a black BDU to the contaminated air. Breathing became straining as he tried to limit it to prevent taking in the toxin Poison Ivy made to create these beasts that his comrades slaughtered before him.

The rustling of his gear caught Karl attention, who quickly saw what was happening, and acted accordingly. He gave Rick one of his own filters and quickly replaced the broken one with a new one as Slade gave him cover. But out of the corner of his mask he saw another mutant clawing out of the shadows toward Slade...

His first thought was to yell to him, but his training kicked in as Ricky quickly scooped up his M4 and fired four shots one handed until the beast fell back into the shadows. The hot brass bounced off the walls and into his suit, burning his skin and making him scream at near the top of his lungs. Karl tighten the filter and opened it quickly, "Take a deep breath! Might be your last if your not care-"

Another mutant tackled Karl from above, ripping and trashing at him, cutting his suit to shreds. Rick forced himself to his feet and attacked the creature wildly with the butt of his rifle. Strange blood like goo spilled from the creatures face as Rick beat it to death, its face denting as the adrenaline fueled his body as the basic animal need to survive took over...

Karl saw this as he pummeled the beast into submission. He was proud... Like a father seeing his son fight back against a bully...

"Rick!" Karl yelled as another mutant tried to size Ricky up. He leaped into action with knife once more beating the beast over the head before stabbing the spawn in side of the skull and below the chin. The lifeless body of the brute was tossed aside like a discarded glove as Karl, Ricky, and Slade fought back against the hoard valiantly. Beast after beast, Brute after Brute, and mutant after hate filled mutant fell to their guns until the bodies of twelve brutes and the blood of many more cluttered the floor.

The brief lull in the intense fighting allowed the team to realize that building was not completely contaminated by Ivy's toxin. Rick looked over his body to see, to much of his disbelief and relief, that he wasn't growing a branch or sprouting flowers. Karl looked over himself in the same manor until the sound of a roaring AC unit caught his attention and a brief chill ran down his back.

"NBC counter measures... Fucking psychopath knew this shit was gonna happen sooner or later..." Karl hissed as he removed the rest of his tore NBC suit and gas mask to reveal black combat attire.

"After Ivy threatens the whole fucking city for years with mustard gas, who wouldn't want something like that?" Ricky asked him in a shaky voice as his body recovered from the intense rush of adrenaline. Greenish blood covered his face, staining it, and dripped off of his rifle. His eyes were still sharp, but hesitant. He wasn't a solider yet until he took the fabled '1000 yard glare', or maybe he was just lucky enough not to get it...

"Roger that." Karl replied with a light chuckle as he dawned his signature Black Panzer cap. "Slade, where to next? Hopefully you won't lead us into another shit storm."

Slade said nothing and made his way down a long hallway along a path of fallen security team members. The walked with sight trained in front of them and cleared every room until reaching a checkpoint toward a high security area blocked off by a large metal bulkhead. The trio dug into the pockets of the half eatten security guards until finding the key they needed to pass through the large door. Once the massive door was opened, they moved on through another maze of Office blocks covered in an assortment of greenery.

All under the eyes of Poison Ivy as she watched them intensely through the mystical Green as well as being followed by Batman's girlfriend, Harley Quinn.

* * *

Soon they found an elevator, a working elevator completely separate from the main power supply, and down they went to Level D11 in the R&D department. Deeper into Gothcorp's skunk works, deeper into the darkness...

"So what else was Gothcorp working on beside those ice guns of Freeze's?" Ricky asked his comrades as they passed by the cryogenic works on their way to the bottom floor.

Before Karl could reply with a snippy comeback, Slade replied quietly: "Highly specialized unmanned armored fighting and aerial combat vehicles."

As the last bits of his sentence flew off of his tone like ice the door open to a large hanger like basement complete with a railway station with two freight trains awaiting to be loaded with cargo that was swinging from heavy duty lift cranes strung from the high ceiling above them. Several containers marked 'U.S.A.F' and 'U.S Army' along with Gothcorp logos littered the station and hanging above on the cranes. But some containers were left open as if someone was doing final check on the projects inside of them...

Karl took the lead as he stepped out of the elevator and into a cold draft. He shook off the cold and at a quick pace walked over to one of the open containers and shined his flashlight into the dark and cold container.

He dropped the flashlight and stormed out of the container promptly, drawing the attention of Slade and Ricky who quickly regrouped with him as he opened another larger container. But were quickly thrown aside as Karl stormed from container to container in a fit of what seemed to be fear mixed with white hot anger...

"Their gone..." Karl hissed loudly, slamming his fist against a container. "The fucking mercs took the fucking gear out before we could have ever made a fucking move!"

Ricky was confused to the point of giving up and began to looking into the containers himself.

But Slade simply stood silently with a large arrogant, shit eating, grin on his face as he watched Ricky and Karl wallow in confusion and frustration.

The facility was completely abandon, cleaned out of everything he could have possibly imagined... which ate deeply into Karl's mind... As he stood propped up against one of the larger shipping containers he cursed himself relentlessly at the plan going completely wrong. This wasn't in the plan at all... Nothing made sense at all.

The number of shipping containers and the two empty trains didn't add up. Why would something this big, with clients that affluent and powerful, leave two empty trains and evidence? The US. Air Force and Army doesn't just loan out anything, let alone shipping containers. If Ivy's plants gassed the joint and turned the Blackwater thugs into brutes, then were are the guns? Brutes are just that: Brutes, nothing but carnivorous plant hybrids with the intelligence of a wild animal...

Changing to a brute would inflect so much pain on the victim that he would throw his hands on his head in a vain attempt to stop the pain, dropping anything to the ground including a rifle.

"FUCK!" Karl shouted. "It would have took longer than five fucking days to move this shit out of the R&D department! This didn't happen in a fucking week!"

"Or maybe they were never here." Slade replied, his grin still on his face.

"The fuck is your issue Slade?!" Karl burst, shoving Slade. "You've been on both our asses since this fucking op started. You got some info your not sharing, eh? Eh? EH?!"

"Do that one more time." Slade replied in a monotone.

"Fuckin gladly..." Karl replied, but was interrupted by Ricky who called from a far near a office of some kind.

"Guys! I found something!" He shouted, waving his hand from the window of what seemed to be a dock foreman officer connected to a train station. The station resembled that of a regular station in a small village in Europe, but with more militaristic features such as guard stations like that on a forward operating base, MG nests, and security cameras.

Karl looked over to Ricky briefly and returned to Slade with a scowl.

This wasn't right... This wasn't right at all... And Slade knew something about this...

He broke the stare down and stormed off toward the office. Karl threw the door open to see Ricky hacking into a Gothcorp Laptop. He peaked over the screen to see Karl and quickly motioned him to come over him. "You gotta see this shit!" Ricky told him with a mix of excitement and fear.

Through the various files and pictures he found the specifications for highly sophisticated unmanned tanks and aerial drones, both helicopter and airplane based. All of these vehicles were synchronized and commanded by a single command program known only as 'Seventh Wave'. Only the plans and testing results were found on the computer and it's hard drive... But nothing on who 'Lennox' was and why Waller was funding this project.

It made sense that the United State Military would want a system like this to end the use of Human soliders, especially after the massive blood letting in the Middle East and in Korea some time ago. But why give Gothcorp the contract? The DOD has legions of Research and Development teams all over the United States and Europe. Why Gothcorp of all places?

Why Amanda Waller?... Of all people he competence level and her erratic behavior surpassed that of the bumbling US Government regulars. Not only her level of competence, but she has openly fought internal wars with that of the CIA and even the secretive 'Checkmate' bureau. Why would they employ her at a R&D project?

"Anything on this Lennox character, Rick?" Karl asked him as they flipped through the files. More research appeared but drifted to something more sinister...

Karl couldn't believe his eyes...

"That's enough boys." Slade hissed as he drew his side arms at Karl and Ricky.

* * *

_**Meanwhile...**_

From atop a destroyed build watching from above was the Dark Knight and the former Harlequin of crime. The two had been observing Karl and his team since he returned to Gotham only a few weeks ago. When he was around, it was always a serious matter...

Especially if Slade Wilson was involved...

"They entered the building an hour ago, yes?" Batman asked Harley Quinn.

"Mhmmm, They went right in and then the crazies came screaming out. Some fireworks here and there, but you know how Karl is." Harley replied without pity.

"Are sure that he is alive?" Batman asked her, concerned about her lack of worry for him.

"If that crazy kraut can live through Waller's death squad and Arkham, don't cha think he can take on Ivy's kids?" Harley snipped.

"I was only asking. I know you don't like him, but he has some information I want brought to me intact. But Ivy stopped me from getting it myself." Batman replied in his stoic tone.

Harley rolled her eyes and threw her arms together to pout. "Hmmm!" She snorted childishly, Something that pushed Bruce's buttons to no end.

Bruce turned to her with a slight smile, something that made her melt inside every time she saw him smile. She crawled over to him and kissed his cheek, "Sorry baby." She apologized in her more professional Harleen style tone.

"Don't be." Bruce replied warmly as they returned to steaking out the building.

As Harley returned to her binoculars she had a sudden thought...

"Bruce," Harley whispered. "Ivy got in touch with me... She said something about a wolf... And that if Karl got hurt to bring him to her... What does that mean, A wolf in the garden?"

The sound of frantic automatic fire echoed throughout the dead city as an unprotected Karl fired his automatic Mauser pistols in all directs, screaming obscenities in a mixture of German and English into the night before collapsing to the ground due to the lack of a gas mask.

Bruce and Harley leaped into action, sliding down vines and using the batclaw to get down to the ground as Karl quickly dropped his guns and grabbed his head to stop the pain as he scream incessantly. Harley and Batman tried to hold him down, but he was more resilient than expected and fought back harder

"Karl! Calm down it's us! Harls and Bats!" Harley called to him to get his attention. Karl turned to her in a blood rage, but was gassed by Batman with an anesthetic knocking him out cold.

As he fell to the ground he gained one last moment of consciousness in which he threw his hand up, as if he was reaching for something in the distance, before falling back to the ground on his back.

"Slade... Working with... Waller... Need... Stop him..." He whisper before passing out cold on the wet street as a fresh blanket of rain fell from above.

Batman and Harley picked him up and strung him over their shoulders, "Their is a medical unit just a click east of here. They can-"

"No bats!" Harley protested. "Ivy wanted me to bring him to her if something went bad! She can fix this and it's closer! See!" She pointed down the street to where the large tree fortress loomed ominously in the background.

"Harleen, If we take him to Ivy she will simply let him die." Batman replied only to be interrupted by Harley.

"And if we go to the Army then they will arrest him, put him in jail, and left to rot. Waller will make sure of that!" She snapped. "You know that bitch just as well as I do and she won't hesitate to kill'em."

Batman was surprised, but soon noticed that she was right. Amanda Waller wasn't someone to toy with... What surprised him the most was her radical change from hating Karl to actually trying to save him. She had change not only as a person, but her alter ego as well. She was trying to make a real change...

As reluctantly as it sounded coming from his mouth, Batman agreed on one condition: Harley would try to talk Ivy out of her control of Gotham.

Harley smirked and agreed under the condition that he would take her out on patrol more. He agreed and soon they pressed on down the forbidding street toward Ivy's fortress...


	6. Chapter 6: Tilling the Field (Lemon)

_**Next Chapter is the last Chapter! Then we have till June to wait for Arkham Knight and possibly a whole sea of fics. Enjoy the Lemon and the OCxIvy ship in this chapter. **_

_**With Love ~Dresner**_

* * *

_**Ivy's lair:**_

The slender goddess of nature slowly ran her hands through her lush red hair lustfully as she watched Batman and Harley carry the unconscious body of Karl Dael to her up the vine laden sides of the trees as if they were scaling mountain in the alps. Gotham cities aura of endless light and what remained of the full moon lite their way through the heavy rain. The rain never ceased, not even briefly, as the Bat and Jester braved the cold and rain to bring Karl to her. A bright smirk came over her face as she awaited their arrival. Though she could have easily sent them to her lair, or to hell to which ever they preferred. Throwing them off the side to a twenty story drop to their deaths and taking Karl for her own and sparing Harley. But no...

Ivy wanted her poison to take a little more effect on Karl before she would heal him...

Not that she wanted him to suffer for killing her ungodly creations that she deemed her 'Children', No, those were acceptable losses. What she wanted was something different...

The Toxin effected people differently, killing some or turning them into her slaves, but Ivy was sure Karl would fight it. He wasn't human in some senses, his power was overwhelming years ago. Due mostly to that of something known as the 'Black Sun', some kind of mystical field of magic from a different realm. But that power was gone now, replaced by sheer will and genetically enhanced by a kind of 'Super Solider' drug.

She could feel his presence coming ever closer to her... Drawing ever closer to her...

Ivy licked her sapphire lips in anticipation as his presence drew closer and closer to her lair. A lustful look came over her face as she watched with amusement as the heroes struggled to lug her hunter across her jungle. But she couldn't help but wonder, What happen below Gothcorp after they entered the elevator and went down into the darkness below?

From what she saw in the first floor, thanks to the Green, Slade destroyed his mask before reaching the surface. His first contact to the toxin was harsh, but turned deadly once mixed with an estrange toxin only manufactured by one insidious Doctor of the infamous Arkham Asylum: Scarecrow. The toxin was extracted from a exotic plant found only in South America known as _Vinha do Pesadelo, _The Vine of Nightmares, known for it's ability tear into one psyche and bring out someones worst nightmares and, as an added bonus, ones most repressed memories.

"How much have you seen, my dear huntsman, my brave huntsman." The Goddess asked poetically. "How long have you fought your war? How long have you carried on your fight? Where have you been on this earth? How many homes have you left without a word said? Or have you ever had a home, a place to lay your head at night went the guns go silent under the fallen sun? Was their ever a woman in your life for you to lay with when the war seemed only a distant memory? Or is their one now who awaits your return? Does she grieve when her king leaves the castle, not knowing if you will returned once again? Does she weep at the thought of you laying in a hole in the cold night in some far away land? Does she pray for your safety as she lays in her bed slowly crying herself to sleep? Who have you lost in your time? A Brother? A Sister? A Son? A Daughter? Maybe a Mother or a Father? What have those eyes seen? How far have those boots cared you on? How long can you carry on this fight before fate catches up with you? Who will be their when you go on your last journey to meet the creator?...

Ivy paused briefly as she wiped the tears streaming from her emerald green eyes as she watch them draw closer and closer to her home, to her. Then she realized something... She felt guilty for poisoning him, yet as she spoke these words she felt a wave of forgiveness sweep her soul away as she spoke in the purest form any woman could ever speak in. But before she could finish as loud cry from her guardian brutes broke her train of thought causing her to grow annoyed, angry, and irritated at cry. She cried through the Green for them to cease, but the Green replied:

"HIM!"

A mixture of glee and disgust came through Ivy as she view from above as Harley held Karl as Batman began engaging her beasts in hand to hand combat. The shear number of her army was great, even for the Batman, but her beasts soon backed away in fear as Harley drew one of Karl's infamous heavy framed Mauser pistols. The simple sight of the heavy framed pistols was something her plants knew all to well since the birth of the Green Mile, but the older and more exotic plants at her disposable told her stories of countless men of Valor and Action who carried such a pistol on the seven continents for over a century and a quarter. The Green allowed her to see into the past in some estrange way, or maybe that was the blood of the millions of men, women, and children of the world who's souls were unfortunate enough to find their life ended at the barrels of many other Broomhandle packing outlaws, heroes, soliders, gangsters, and commissars. It was the last thing the people of the Green wanted to see was Death staring them in the face...

No wonder Karl wore a long black coat...

She brought the hoard of beasts back into the depths of her lair by a mix of fear, mainly of the ominous sight of Karl's pistol now in the hands of Harley Quinn, a deadly combination.

"That's right plant breath! I got this psycho's hand cannon and I'm not afraid to use it either!" Harley taunted them as they ran away, only to get a disappointed frown from Bruce for using a gun. But before he could scold her for breaking Bat code a large vine took the trio into it's sap drench clutches with a death grip. They tried to fight the grip of the vine, but the sap acted like a shield to the blades of Batman gauntlets and knives as well as holding them in place taking them into the heart of Ivy's lair.

The thick brush of the tree seemed to open like a draw bridge to a fortress in the days of knights in shining armor. Batman tried his best to cut the vines to free himself, but his attempt were in vain as the branches and brush closed behind them closing off what remained of Gotham's light. Harley on the other hand cheered with glee as the vines drug them closer and closer into the lair of Mother Nature.

What was going to happen next was something that even the great detective couldn't predict. But Harley had some what of an idea of why Ivy was dragging them up to her home away from home. With in seconds the struggling Batman and bubbly Harleen were knocked out by a powerful anesthetic gas excreted from estrange plants Ivy found long ago...

* * *

_**Two Hours Later-**_

Karl slowly opened his eyes as if he awoke after a thousand year slumber. Above him seemed to be an endless skyline of leaves and flowers dancing above him. With a heavy yawn he stretch out his arms in legs to find himself in a large queen sized made out of lush leaves and soft grass that felt as if he was sleeping on some kind of cloud. He rose out of bed and to his surprise he was clad only in a pair of dark boxer-briefs. But even more to his surprise he saw his old black leather Brimstone Society coat still baring the single oak leaves of a Oberst (Colonel) on the collar tabs and sliver shoulder boards folded in a vine made chair under a black uniform with only the Brimstone insignia, a Lorrie cross cut with an infinite symbol, on the shoulders with his original Black M43 cap and Mauser pistols crossed on top of them in the corner near a nightstand. His tall Jackboots sat together in front of the chair and appeared to have been shined methodically to the point of being fresh from the shoe maker. The silver oak leaves and Deathshead seemed to be polished as well as cleaned as the smell of pine and flowers filled the air around them. But the smell of fresh gun oil intrigued him more than anything else as the brief light with in the strange jungle like room gave an extra shine to his beloved Mauser pistols.

Someone had cleaned them as well...

He threw his legs over the side of the bed almost hitting the night stand next to him where to which his wallet, ID tags, Cigarette case, and zipo lighter sat in the dim light of a light giving plant. This wasn't the first time he awoke in a strange place and his cloths strewn around the room, albeit not folded and cleaned to perfection. As his feet touched the ground he dug his toes into the soft grass with a slightly peaceful grin. The feeling brought back memories of a simpler time as a young lad of thirteen walking barefoot in the greenfield of his families hunting lands hunting varmints with a .22 rifle. He ran his hands through his thick brown hair as a happy smile came across his hard face.

His hair was soft... Strange since he did not bath before his deployment to the Green Mile, He did not have time. But now his hair was soft and clean, as was his body. Who ever brought him here bathed him as well... His head was throbbing as he tried to stand on his feet but the pain in his head threw him back down onto the bed.

"Shit..." He hissed as he held his head up.

"My toxin, Scarecrow's fear gas, and Batman's anesthetic doesn't seem to be getting along together." The seductive, yet caring, voice of Pamela Isley said in a low and sweet tone. She wore a more traditional attire of only a corset and panties made out of leaves leaving nothing to the imagination.

Karl turned his head slightly, almost not caring that she had the jump on. But a look in his eye told Ivy that he was a little cross with her. "Where did you get these?" He asked her imminently as he turned his torso toward her, showing off his tattoos and scars to her.

From the tattoos Ivy could make out various Germanic, Nordic, and Celtic tattoos. A large Prussian eagle was on his left shoulder and a Celtic cross on the opposite shoulder. On his chest was a strange round scar that reminded her of the Black sun wheel, an ancient symbol of purity in Germanic folk lure, over his heart and an old flag over his opposite breast made of a Black, White, and Yellow bars. Down to his abs was an Odal rune posed with in a iron cross surrounded by other decorations. Down his fore arms were more decorations of Celtic and Nordic significance to him, but Ivy knew Nordic runes from her history class at Gotham University stood for his warrior nature and his respect for nature itself, The Celtic crosses and runes stood for his belief in Celtic paganism and Celtic Christianity, But the Germanic stood for strength, power, and love in some respects. Her eyes soon drifted down toward his muscular legs but stuck on the package in his tight boxers...

Ivy soon snapped her eyes back to his rugged face and responded in confidence, "I have my ways." She said turning her head away from him and looking toward the direction of Bludhaven. "How are you feeling Karl?"

Karl chuckled, "Still alive. The question is how."

Poison Ivy was a temptress, even before she became Mother Nature incarnated, but she had a brain under all the voluptuous exterior. Though he couldn't take his eyes off her hour glass figure, well endow breasts, and tight ass. Her green skin was something that intrigued and enthralled him and the flawless red hair only served to take his breath way even further.

She let out a girly and flirtatious giggle, "You always had a way of putting things. The answer is simple, I allowed you to live. A wonderful concoction of Anti-Toxins now allows you breath even in the most harshest of environments. You, My dear Hunter, are now immune to almost all forms of toxins. Which means..." She leaned on him, rapping her arms around him and bringing her alluring figure closer to him. Her face came closer to his to the point of their noses almost touch, "My touch won't harm you... and neither will this."

Ivy placed a warm kiss on Karl's lips. It was warm and genuine in nature, but the Black Hunter broke the kiss briefly to ask another important question. "The question is also why? Why save someone who cut through your plants without mercy?" He asked in a serious tone, trying to pry an answer from her.

Ivy never lost her playful mood, nor her lust, and gave a mischievous grin. "Isn't it obvious?" She replied locking her eyes with Karl's. His eyes were a beautiful shade of Green like that of fresh summer leafs which made Ivy smile. They seemed a sharp as the knife he kept in those tall of boots of his, but at a better glance she saw they were worn down from constant fighting, from the outside and with in. It's said that a persons eyes could write books, for Karl's it seemed like a library. She could feel them yearning to connect with another soul in more ways than one, but she could feel some restraint holding him back.

Then she saw a name tattooed over another Celtic Cross...

A small life rune stood next to the date 1983 and the opposite sign, the death rune, next to the date 2007. The name was strange, Dusk, a time of coming darkness. Ivy didn't know who this woman was, maybe a loving girlfriend or a wife. Maybe that was what was holding him back. But Ivy persisted and ran her hands around his sides, edging ever closer to the package in his underwear.

Karl returned with a dirty smirk, "Maybe, Yes. But indulge me, Doctor Isley." He said in a playful, yet seductive tone, and expression.

"Please Karl, call me Poison Ivy..." Ivy said as her emerald eyes made their way back to his face.

He chuckled as his ruff hands ran down her smooth and almost endless legs making her let out a delightful 'Mmmmm'. "Ivy then... Tell me, is there something I'm missing? If my thoughts are correct, I thought you preferred the company of another woman. Maybe a Harlequin jester, yes?"

Ivy laughed with a naughty smile as she reached into his boxers and stroked his manhood. He was rock hard just like his exterior and ready for a good time, even more so once she started pumping his cock with her soft hands.

"Harley is merely a friend, almost a sister to me. But I can't say I blame you for thinking I was a lesbian. I ever allowed the boys to play in my garden, I've been waiting for a strong man to come and till my field." Ivy replied as she pulled out his cock from his underwear.

Karl brought her closer as she jerked him off with her soft and little hands. His manhood was throbbing for her and ready for a piece of Ivy. She thrusts his cock without pause as she threw herself at his lips once more. This time nipping at his lips begging for entrance as the kiss flourished passionately as Karl brushed her hair aside and pushed her closer to him. Their tongues caressing each other left his hands to wander ever farther as they slipped into her panties to rub her exquisite rump. Ivy then broke the kiss and stared to waltz her tongue around the moist tip of his cock. The red head bobbed her head up and down making him moan with pleasure.

An evil expression took over his face as Ivy turned her head to the side as the pre-cum dripped from her lush green lips. Her soft ran a circle around her lips as she laid her back across his lap. "Mmmmm, Your sweeter on the inside." She said as his hand dived down her panties to massage her clit. The Hunter's fingers were skilled first teasing her by tracing down her pussy lips and eventually entering her. Slow at first but his vigor built until Ivy was moaning with pleasure even more he started rubbing her clit. As his fingers brought her to heaven, Ivy threw off her bra to grasp her large breasts and pinch her little nips. Her eye never left him, almost teasing him and his hard cock as she started licking her own nips.

It was to much for Mother Nature as her cum soaked her panties to the bone. Karl pulled his hand out from them, now dripping with Ivy's sweet cum, and licked his index finger clean. "Your sweeter." He says, driving Ivy mad with horniness until she couldn't take it anymore. She laid him down on the bed and laid on top of him, slipping off her panties and throwing them across the jungle like room with her foot.

His cock was still rock hard even after Ivy's fellatio, It began to throb harden once it found its way into her pretty pussy. Ivy may have been from the city, but she rode Karl like a Texas cowgirl at a rodeo. Fast and hard, just like Karl liked it. She took his dick in full and grinned her pussy against him hard until the Hunter turned the tables and threw her on the bed.

Karl teased her pussy with his fat cock until Ivy was literally begging for it. But he soon gave in and rocked her until the bed was shaking. He leaned into her until he was face to face with Ivy, their tongues meeting once more as Ivy locks him in with her legs and arms. The fucking was so good that Ivy was digging her nails into his tattooed back making him pound her even more.

"My turn." Ivy moaned, pushing Karl off of her and making him sit on the bed. She rapped herself around him once more into another cowgirl, but Karl sat up right and held her thighs to him. She gyrated her hips once more as she took his cock into her deeply. Karl had other ideas and took her over to the wooded wall near the nightstand and fucked her against the wall like a dirty country girl. Ivy's legs tighten against him once again and her nails dug into his back once more.

He began to realize what she was trying to tell him...

He never let up until finally she erupted in a screaming organism followed by Karl who moaned with joy as the two came together unison. With their cum dripping from Ivy's thighs, Karl laid themselves down on the bed to cuddle before Ivy finally ran out of steam.

But Ivy still had some fight left in her for one more passion driven kiss. A kiss that Karl, no matter how much it killed him to admit it, enjoyed. The last thing the two saw were each other before falling asleep in each others arms...

* * *

_**Dawn, 5:30am.**_

Karl smiled as he saw Ivy laying in his arms. She slept with a smile on her face, maybe from the night they shared together or just in general. By god she was perfect even in slumber. He took extra caution to not disturb her as he made his way out. But as soon as he got to the side of the bed, she turned and he caught one more glimpse of her beautiful face and body. Ivy looked so peaceful... So content... So beautiful...

"No..." He whispered to himself, damning his feelings and heart for laying with her. Though he wanted to since he first saw her when he was young and fresh in the Order. "I can't let another woman fall in with me. They would go the way of my wife..." He said regretfully as the redish orange light of the Dawn broke through a near by window. Karl managed to put on his black trousers and boots before feeling sick to his stomach.

"What am I doing?..." He asked himself, his heart heavy with guilt. Yet he did nothing wrong or so he thought. He turned to Ivy and played her hair to get his mind straight. Then it hit him...

Like a bolt of lightening he realized what he was trying to do, He looked back at his coat and arms sitting on the chair and sighed. "If I go now I'll return to the darkness..." He whispered as his eyes turned back to Ivy. "If I stay I might endanger her..."

Karl stopped playing with Ivy's hair for a moment and turned his front toward the chair once more staring at it intensely as be threw idea after idea around in his head about wither to leave Ivy or stay with her. He remembered his mission, but he wasn't sure if Ricky made it out of Gothcorp and to the Farm, a plot of land across the main bridge into Gotham about ten or fifteen miles North. Moments before Slade betrayed them, Ricky made a copy of the important files on a USB drive and hid them in his pocket. Once Slade held them at gun point, Karl jumped at him and managed to make him retreat to the surface and allowed Ricky to escape into the tunnel unnoticed. But after reaching the elevator, Karl was hit with a strain, from Ivy hinted at, to be of a fear toxin from the long gone Dr. Crane, AKA Scarecrow. Then it all went blank.

He wondered if she saved his backpack and PDA so that he could contact Ricky or at least check if he tried to contact him. But Karl's mind was somewhere else entirely...

The matter of the Heart took priority over the mission of the mind, a rare event in the purely business like nature of Karl. 'Get it done' was his motto, How to get it done was another question all in its own in his line of work. But this time it wasn't about getting it done or how to get it done, This time it was about a woman and what it would do to her if he simply scooped up his gear and disappeared into nothing once more. He looked at her for a solid ten minutes contemplating what to do with her. Once again he weighed his options... Adding into the fact that Dr. Isley was a meta-human super villainous only added to the toxicity of the situation.

Being an Eco-terrorist, wanted by the Government, The Justice League, and Batman himself only added to baggage that he would have to carry. Being wanted by the Government is one thing, but being wanted by the Justice League and it's various branches was another beast all together.

At least you could pay off a Politician, a Governor, or the whole system itself. But you could always blackmail, murder, and pay off your way off the radar. Especially not with Batman and his bat-Family nipping at your tail as well...

If he stays, then he gets more heat than he is willing to take. But if he goes, He will have Ivy herself gunning for his skin...

What happen during that night wasn't just a fling to get themselves off, Pamela wasn't that kind of woman. She cared for him and Pamela Isley never put in half of energy into anything...

Pamela Isley loved him... She knew what he did in Gigagen enough to gather his old gear and restore it to new, She saved his life and granted him an ability that only Harley Quinn and herself had, and strangely... It felt right... It felt good that he had this moment with her. As he sat looking at her in her slumbering state he felt as if a breath of fresh air had cleaned the cob webs from his dusty heart, as if he was twenty three again when he first met his wife...

That feeling of humble happiness morphed into burning passion with only a simple exchange of words... It happen so quickly, yet felt so right...

Karl, for the first time in years, felt loved. He felt a warmth he never felt before, as if he had some purpose in life once more. Someone to go home to if his war ever ended.

Someone who made him feel human again...

It something that even Ivy herself could feel even as she slept as the Black Hunter ran thought after thought through his trench maze of a mind. As she dreamed, the Green allowed her see into his troubled mind as he fought a war with in himself. He was damaged, but not broke in any sense of the word. Losing a loved one had that effect on you, but as she dug deeper she saw an image that replied in Karl's mind every time he went to sleep.

The image of him with his dying wife in his arms, bleeding profusely from her stomach and begging for him to find help. And Karl? He did the only thing he could do...

Ivy knew why his eyes seemed so reluctant at first, he thought it was wrong to deflower her when the memory of finishing off his dying wife was still fresh in his mind. As if he could allow himself to just do something like that to her. It was gallant of him, but then she saw some of the better memories. The memories of him serving with his German and Russian comrades in arm abroad in far away lands. Even some memories of being with his sister and brother in his home state of Alabama when he was only a teen and his early twenties. Karl was a good man at heart, just like Batman, but he took out his darkness on the world and let it rule him. Ivy saw his good side, the light side, with Ricky when they entered her Green Mile and when he and Harley came to her for help.

The strong armor that was his stoic and militaristic exterior held a man looking for forgiveness and redemption. But she feared that the redemption he longed for would be at the end of a gun...

Karl needed help... But he would not except it. He was a quiet man, but not above making sly and dirty jokes. She remembered a story regarding him and his reasons for joining the Brimstone Society.

The reason being that he had no other option, he was forced, or rather he forced himself into it. Maybe he believes that their is no other way out?...

Maybe he doesn't know their is another way to find forgiveness?...

Karl turned away from her and eyed the Mauser pistols on his old coat. They weren't the first models he used in the order, nor were they the others he used, but more rarer pieces. They were both of the later modal series of Machine pistols, the M712 'Schnellfeuer', in the old 7.63mm Mauser cartridge, a caliber considered the most high velocity pistol cartage in the world until the invention of the .357 Magnum, with black frames with dark walnut grips. Both seemed to be identical, but two names were engraved on both sides of the long barrels.

Athena and Artemis, The Greek Goddesses of the Hunt and Warfare.

"Hmmm..." Karl said with wonder. "Seems she knows me well..."

"I know you better than you think." A sleepy Ivy yawned as she rapped her arms around his waist to rest her chin on his broad shoulder.

"Oh really?" Karl asked her with a brief smirk that faded away as fast as it appeared.

Ivy kissed him on the cheek and whispered to him, "I really do, my Hunter. But how well do you know me?"

She was toying with him, Ivy had to be. But Karl gave in and played her game, maybe it would help him make up his mind on what to do. At least the Schnellfeuer Mausers on his coat may give him at least a fight change against Poison Ivy.

"Hmmm..." He said, scratching his Goatee. "Your a Northwesterner, Settle, Washington. The daughter of a wealthy family who were more concerned about their money rather than their perfect flower." Karl's voice was rather stiff, but began to mellow out and become more confidant as he took her hand and kissed it.

"A quiet one, yet harboring a fabulous mind, you became very emotionally detached from them as they did to you. Immersing yourself into botanical chemistry, you soon became top of your class. But then something happen... Something changed between then and the time you became Poison Ivy. Whatever it was made you this way..." Karl held one of her hands, locking his fingers entwine with hers. "But at least you have something to go back to."

She gave a sad sigh and sat on his lap with her naked body facing him. They both enjoyed it and neither one of them could say they didn't. Her arms rapped around his neck and Ivy kissed him gently. "What do you mean? I have you, don't I?" She asked him playfully, already knowing what he meant.

"Well..." Karl hesitated, trying not to offend her. "You have your children, your world. You have something that needs you."

Ivy flipped her hair out of her face and placed one finger on Karl's lips. "Your right, but your forgetting something Honey. I need you too."

As he finger came off of his lips, Karl responded sarcastically to her remark. "Well if it's good sex and a hired gun, then I'm your man but I don't think I fit your criteria..."

Ivy laughed, genially laughed out loud. "Sarcasm is one of your favors isn't? For an enforcer, you meet everything I could ever want. As for a lover..." She slowly laid him down on his back once more, sitting on his stomach with her curvy naked body. Ivy laid herself on his chest until a smile came onto her and Karl's face.

"I can say your one of the good ones." She whispered to him sensually.

Karl's smile became wide as he grabbed her ass firmly making her moan with pleasure, she loved a man to be a little ruff.

"I'm going to change that." He said with large smile as he kissed Ivy once more.

The loud thunder of explosives and armored vehicles interrupted their foreplay drawing Karl toward a window near by. Ivy was a little agitated at him for throwing her off of him for those sounds. For almost a week the sound of explosions and heavy armor was something she began to ignore.

"Do you hear that?" Karl asked her as the sounds of diesel and gas turbine engines echoed around them.

"Those meat sacks and their toys always run through my city. But they- AHHHH UGHHHHH!" Ivy screamed in pain as if a knife had been driven into her stomach. Karl turned around quickly, confused on what was happening.

Ivy thrashed on the bed as the sounds outside grew louder and louder. "NNNNNNOOOOOOOO!" She screamed.

"IVY!" Karl shouted running to her tend to her. But to much of his surprise there were not any signs of a gunshot or anything. "Ivy, whats going-"

Karl the remembered something she once said to him when she returned briefly to Gigagen on the request of the Doctor on that of one of his many pet projects. It was after she complete her work on Site C...

_I am Nature's arm. Her Spirit. Her will. _

She could feel their pain... The pain of her 'children'...

He ran to the window to see a large convoy of National Guardsmen around a line of Styker APCs following the lead of a Engineering variant of the Abrams, known as the Grizzly, clearing the street. The Guardsmen used old flamethrowers to burn Ivy's vines and overgrowth.

But there were more...

One section turned into ten and ten into fifty... From atop the tree fortress and the screams of Poison Ivy, he saw that this wasn't just a simple patrol...

They were heading to Ivy's lair...

Karl looked back to his guns and shook his head violently, He couldn't take them on. One man vs an Army, something he never found himself in or at least tried not to. Thinking quickly he retrieved his guns, under arm holsters and rigging, and the rest of his uniform.

"Ivy, we have to get out of here. Is their away to get us out of Gotham and somewhere safe?" He called to her as a brief moment of peace came over her before her anger burst to the surface.

"I'LL RIPPING THEIR HEARTS OUT!" She screeched summoning a legion of brutes from mire seeds to descend on the National Guardsmen. Karl ran up to her as she screamed in pain and threw her to her feet, his hands firmly gripped on the side of her arms staring into her rage filled eyes.

"IVY!" Karl said firmly, not raising his voice louder than it had to be. Her rage then turned on him, but doused with cold respect as the story like eyes of Karl now turned hard like iron. "We need to get out of here. Is their a way to get us out of here, someway that doesn't put us out in the open."

Ivy was brimming with hatred for the men below, chopping, burning, and mutilating her plants with their Axes and Flamethrowers. But the hatred was cooled by the coldness in Karl's eyes, "I will wipe them from the face of MY EARTH-"

"I know you will," Karl interjected agreeing with her, which surprised her as he did it with a respectful and calm voice. "But doing that will draw their fire toward you. We are not going head to head with the National Guard at such odds. I have something at stake and a job to complete, if we had the numbers then I would think of at least some limited engagement. But I digress, Can we get out of here?"

Ivy's fiery rage dissipated even further as he hands her his black coat, "Here, Cover yourself up. I know you like to do the naked goddess thing but I want you covered and we have no time for you to change into anything you got."

She threw it over her shoulders and acted like a cloak on her. Karl was a giant of a man of six feet tall, his boots bringing him to six foot two, and the long black trench coat stopped right at the middle of his tall Jackboots. But on Ivy it dragged across the floor.

The goddess button the two of bottom buttons to cover her legs, but flared out to show off her cleavage. She struck a sassy pose and flipped her hair, "How do I look?" She asked him.

Karl smirked, "Grand. Now our way out."

Ivy rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. More vines appeared before them and formed an estrange gate. A strange field appeared from the vines like a window into another world.

Wasn't the first time he saw a gate to another world... Maybe the third or fourth, not counting near death experiences.

"Welcome to the Green." Ivy told him, ushering him toward the door.

Karl smirked and kissed Ivy on the lips, "Take me to the farm."

Ivy took his hand and returned the kiss before the two escaped into the world of The Green.


	7. Chapter 7: Harvest Moon

_**Last Chapter and the Double Date I mentioned will be at the begining of DNA Part 3 so then I can tie it in with some of the events in game. Enjoy.**_

_**With Love ~Dresner**_

* * *

The Green gave Ivy and Karl a way of disappearing out of the looming eyes of the National Guard. From what Ivy could tell, The Bat family were making their way to capture her but all they found was the emptiness of her Lair.

The two love birds who escaped into the Green found themselves in one of Gotham's major parks where Ivy would sometimes make her home. The thick bushes hide them from the public, lucky for them the park was ten miles deep in Gotham and far away from the Green Mile. Luck was with them, but it seemed to running thin as Robinson Park was miles away from his Farm. Karl knew that if Batman and Harley were looking for him, they would check some of Ivy's regular spots.

From what Ivy had explained, Batman and Harley were the ones to save him from the gassing. Batman had made a deal with her regarding the information he had stolen from Gothcorp regarding Seventh Wave. The deal was simple, Once Karl came back to the world of the living he would bring him the information on 'Seventh Wave' then Batman would consider knocking down her sentence in Arkham Asylum.

Karl was disgusted at the idea of sending her to Arkham, but it was time for the truth to come out on both ends. He told her why he was here for the second time.

"The Bat and I made a deal one month before this began." Karl explained to Ivy as he lead her away from the brush and toward a side walk leading out of the park. Time had passed by rather fast as Dawn turned to Dusk, seemed the time in The Green was slower than that of their reality, as the sky turned into a dark orange as the sun dived behind the trees and Gotham's skyline.

"Though our ideas on justice are opposite sides of the same coin, Batman himself is rather occupied at the moment following some of his own inter demons as well as Harley's following Jokers death. Nightwing and Robin were sent on constant patrols on Gotham's boarder with the Ex-Super Prison of Arkham City and Bludhaven, as they were the only areas that were actually still active with crime following the clowns death." Karl paused as a large smile came over Ivy's face, He knew her views on the Clown and news like that must have made her day even more.

"Now you got to understand that this was after all the shenanigans following his death and Harley's little episode at the steel mill, so his judgement, along with his faith, was, and maybe still is, shaken to the core. So he found me..." Karl reached into one of the pockets of his tunic and to his surprise found his old cigarette case. Inside were hand rolled cigarettes of some of the finest tobacco he could have imagined in his life as he lite one and took a long drag. The smoke was thin, yet rich in flavor. Ivy must have made it for him in her spare time...

"We might have different versions of justice, but we share some of the same values. Getting the job done being one of them... After one of his many loves, Catwoman, gave him the word on the presence of Amanda Waller here in Gotham. Her name is what brought me here, if I remember right you were once a member of Task Force X as well, then you know why I came. The contact was simple, gather a team, get in, and get out. But then your plan and then finding out who Lennox was thew it all into a massive shit storm. Turns out Slade was working with Waller and tried to take the laptop Rick was ripping the information off of regarding Seventh Wave. But he destroyed the laptop before we got the center piece to the project, luckily we got the rest of the information on the drones and some of the gear. Ricky is at the farm for all we know and our agreement still intact, but that is still in the grey."

Ivy's head pointed to the ground as the walked along the path toward the empty streets of Gotham city. The rain had gone and replaced with starry skies and a yellow harvest moon. Karl was a little concerned about Ivy, maybe she was concerned about his fragile alliance with the Dark Knight. But he didn't know...

He rapped his arms around her and drew his face closer toward her. "Honey are you ok?" He asked her in a light whisper as he watched the streets around him, throwing the finished cigarette on the ground.

"If you kill people, then why does he work with you?" Ivy asked him in wonder, her head still staring at the ground.

Karl gave a sigh, wondering himself on the very question. "I guess you can say I spared him in that Tower back in Arkham. Killing Strange might have been against his code, but giving him time to complete his mission there might have shown him I can hold my own. Not to mention I work with him a few years back on more friendly terms during his second year in service."

"You killed Strange?" Ivy asked abruptly, jumping her gaze toward him and rapping herself around her.

"Use to work with him. Had a score to settle from years back... Worked with a man who wanted me dead." Karl replied cold as she hugged him tighter.

"Strange killed one of my children in his vault... I wanted him to pay... Please tell me it was slow and painful." She asked with sadistic glee, which almost unsettled him.

"Slow. Until I finished him off, But that is something I-"

Ivy kissed him deeply in thanks for killing the man who she thought to have killed her 'child'. "My angel..."

Karl soon pushed her off and drew one of his pistols at an incoming late model Tacoma truck as it parked on the side walk in front of the entrance. Out of the cab came Ricky in full civilian cloths, Tan cargo pants with a faded denim button up over a black T-Shirt, with a Soviet made Stechkin pistol in a sloppily hidden holster.  
Out of the passenger door came, to much of their surprise, came Harley Quinn in a red top, Blue jean short shorts, and high healed dress boots. Harley ran toward them and jumped in Ivy's arms, "Ivy! Your alive!" She shouted with glee.

Ivy was more surprised at the sight of Harley than anything, but Harley was always the drama queen. Even more since she spotted Karl's coat over her naked body.

"AWW! Red found herself a man!" Harley replied embarrassingly. "Aren't things lookin up for us Red?"

Karl chuckled at the little nickname Harley gave for her friend, "Red eh? I'll remember that one."

Ivy rolled her eyes and put Harley on her feet with a mix of embarrassment and love at Karl's reply. Harley gives a funny glare before Ricky shows up and greets Karl in a rather strange fashion that even Harley and Ivy thought was a little off, "Still alive sir?" Ricky asked him with haggard eyes.

Karl chuckled again, "Still alive buddy. Still alive..."

He turned his attention toward the truck with his hand, "Nice wheels. Who did you nick from to get it?"

"Some road crew, but they won't be missing it." Ricky replied. "But the blonde found me and told me that if I don't return it after this she would cut my boy off."

"And if you hurt Ivy I'll take yours too!" Harley threaten Karl, only for Ivy to shuffle close to him and kiss him.

"Sorry Harls, but your gonna have to get past me for this one." Ivy replied half jokingly with a protective hiss. "Where's our favorite flying terror? Is he sitting in the trees waiting for us, or are you on your own this time?"

"Bats wanted me to see if you two were still alive after what the weekend warriors did to the Green Mile." Harley replied, taking out her I-Phone and showing the video she took from atop a near by building. The video showed her gigantic tree falling to earth by a control explosion, falling to earth in such a way to make it easier to clean up afterwards. Ivy was in tears as her greatest creation died before her.

Karl comforted her, stroking her hair gently as she lead her toward the truck with Ricky and Harley beside them.

"Where does he want to meet us?" Karl asks Harley as they enter the truck.

"Not us. Only you." Harley replied in her more professional Harleen tone. "As much as I would love to bring Red and Ricky with us, they are going to have to be away at the time you meet him. I suggest that you make up your mind quick, Batman isn't a man to keep waiting."

He sighed and told Ricky to take them to the farm. Ivy protested, but Karl told him that he would return later on and that he would hold up his end of 'Round 2' when he returned. Ivy giggled and kissed him once more, "I'll be waiting for you, My hunter..."

* * *

_**The Batcave, Three Hours Later:**_

Harley removed the blind fold from Karl's eyes and the backpack off of his back as soon as they came to the point in the Batcave Bruce wanted him to be in. Everything was empty and black around him with only a bright yellow light hanging above him. Standing under the light allowed Batman to see Karl, but not the other way around. A chair metal chair was thrown from the darkness and landed at Karl's feet.

"Sit down." The gruff voice of Batman echoed from beyond the shadows.

Karl didn't question him and unfolded the chair promptly. He wasn't here to fight and even if he was it would have been completely one sided. Fight against Batman at his peak, surrounded by darkness, in the open under a lap, and in his own cave. Though Ivy did supply him with extract magazines, Karl wouldn't be needing them. He kept his hands at his front and in whatever view Batman had of him with his guns firmly placed in his holsters.

"What did you find?" Batman demanded.

Karl eased into his lower pocket and pulled another hand rolled cigarette from his case, "Do you mind if I smoke?"

"No." Batman replied.

He slide the cigarette on his ear and took a deep breath to calm himself. It was a lot to remember, but Karl would have rather showed him than explain it. "Are you sure you don't this?"Karl reached into his pocket again and retrieved a black USB drive containing everything Ricky managed to rip from the laptop regarding Seventh Wave.

"How do I know that isn't just a blank USB drive you found in Gothcorp?" Batman asked him.

"I'm a man of my word." Karl replied coolly as he tossed the USB on the ground, skidding across the floor until reaching the very edge of the light. "You can say I've never broken my word unlike my master."

"Deathstroke was working with Waller from the beginning, but only second to himself." Batman told him condescendingly as if he was a stupid child.

"Talking to me like a child won't get you anywhere Bruce." Karl snapped back calmly. "I have all the cards regarding Seventh Wave, not to mention a little gift I wanted to bestow upon you. Seventh Wave is a monster that even you won't be able to stop. If you knew this was going to happen, then why didn't you just go in yourself?"

"I don't have time for this." Batman replied.

"Bruce," Harley whispered to him. "Look."

Near the interrogation was Harley, Robin, and Nightwing standing near the bat-computer observing him as Bruce interrogated him. Harley handed the bag to the wards and to their surprise it contained Karl's specially constructed Exoskeleton and helmet. Nightwing laid it out on a near by table and quietly contacted Oracle to begin scanning and checking its systems.

"Kampfküriss Typ 303 Ausf.Z "Deathshead" Exoskeleton. Developed in part by a man known only as 'The Gunsmith' for a project of my own. Nuclear Biological Chemical protection, bullet proof coat, fire retardant, light weight, and utterly intimidating. It's yours for your research." Karl told him as he lite up his cigarette against Batman's orders.

"Why are you giving us this?" Nightwing and Robin asked him.

Karl simply pointed at the USB on the ground. "Check my work and you will know."

His voice was flat and frank, not hiding anything at all. Batman turned on the lights and revealed himself and his family to the Black Hunter. Karl stood up and took the USB of the ground and brought it to them. Robin and Nightwing held their clubs at the ready in case Karl tried anything stupid, but Batman knew better.

Once he gained the USB drive Batman uploaded it into the bat-computer.

They couldn't believe their eyes...

Armored vehicles, Aerial Drones, and all the black projects they could have ever imagined...

But what interested Batman the most was a suit of combat armor...

Modeled almost directly off of his own Batsuit...

"What is that?" Robin asked in astonishment.

"Competition." Batman replied calmly in his stoic gruff.

"It isn't just for look either. Look at the combat loading and the helmet." Karl pointed out. "That is Seven Wave, The dream of Generals and tyrants alike. An Army under the complete control of one man. An army without will, consciousness, without a soul. Deathstroke, AKA Lennox, developed the concept after a thrashing NATO received during the brief Iranian Boarder War when they tried mass air attacks against Iranian targets protected by High grade ultra integrated Russian built air defense systems. All the systems, though very different from each other, were commanded by several command units switching between one another to keep the source of the main radar hidden from NATO aircraft. The system could take control of all Surface to air missile batteries and command all of them simultaneously."

"The question is who is the man behind the mask." Robin interjected.

"The million dollar question. But we have more to worry about than just one man." Nightwing added.

"Indeed. The question is how?" Karl asked.

Bruce then pulled up the plans for a new weapon, the Batmoblie mark II, and ran a compare and contrast program between the heavy tanks and his own car. The prototype reminded Karl of something out of the minds of his favorite show, Monster garage, with the estrange shark like body and above intimidating appearance. But as Bruce ran the weapon tests against such weapons deployed by Seventh Wave. The results were poor...

He moved back from his chair and simply turned away from the group without a word said to either of them. Harley rushed toward him to see what was wrong but Bruce simply shrugged her aside. "I knew this was coming..." He whispered to her as he slowly walked away from her.

"What do you mean Bruce?" Harley asked him calmly.

"This city..." Bruce replied, taking off his cowl. "Even after Joker's death, this city only seems to send me the worse..."

"It's over Bruce. This is just another bump in the road to peace." Harley said, throwing herself into his arms to comfort him.

"He's right you know." Karl replied loudly to Bruce's statement, stepping down to meet them with Robin and Nightwing flanking him from the sides as he approached Bruce. "The city is quiet now, but enjoy the time you have now. Use it to prepare for war. As the old Latin saying goes, If you want peace prepare for war."

"This city may send you the worst, but they do it because your the best." Harley replied with a smile. "It doesn't matter who comes your way you always win! You win because you won't allow yourself to lose and you never have!"

"You win because of your Iron Will, Bruce. Harleen is right. But you also did it because you had comrades to count on." Karl concurred, looking at Robin, Nightwing, and Harley. "When the going gets tough, they send in the best."

"He's right Bruce." Robin replied. "Much as I hate to agree with him, but even when you do get your ass handed to you. You always come back bigger, badder, and better."

"You think our forefathers had it easy?" Karl asked them. "Hell no, They were hard men doin hard shit! Look what you can do Bruce with a little iron in your heart and few million dollars in the bank. Look how fucking great you are!"

The two wards laughed and Harley even giggled a little. "You got us to help ya Honey." Harley reassured him.

Bruce looked over to the three men before him, all three smiling with confidence. Then to Harley who filled him with love and calm that he needed in his life. He let out his hand to Karl.

"You seem to know your stuff and the only one who knows everything about that suit." He said in his Bruce Wayne voice.

"Ah shut it and shake my hand. It's a deal on one condition." Karl replied.

"Being?" Bruce asked him.

"Let me take care of Ivy. She's calm around me and she might be willing to help you and Harls if shit goes south. Not to mention that she wants a double date, or all things, so she can check you, Bruce mainly, out if your good enough for Harley.

Bruce shrugged but Harley changed his mind. The two men shook each others hand, beginning an alliance that would hopefully last for a long time. While Harley on the other hand screamed with glee at the idea of going out with her man and her best girlfriend.

_**The End.**_


	8. Epilogue

**_Here is the true ending to Wild Flowers and I hope you enjoy it all. Now I will be off to Basic Training and AIT until February and won't be writing Fics, or I hope not, until June after Arkham Knight comes out. So expect a dull period until someone else picks up on what I've written and hoped for out of Fics set before Arkham Knight._**

**_With Love ~Dresner _**

* * *

**_Months later, Three Months before the events of Operation Savior:_**

"Hand me a spanner and a socket wrench." Karl asked Bruce as he finishes the new front axle and suspension below the Batmobile. Bruce hands him the tools as he returns to the side panels and brakes toward the rear.

For months after receiving the information on Seventh Wave, Karl and Bruce worked ferociously on building and testing the Batmobile. With the knowledge of the foes he would be facing in the future, Bruce allowed Karl to mount a special anti-tank cannon and anti-air gun for defense against Seventh Wave's tanks and Aerial drones. Riot suppression gear and a missile system added to the punch of the new Batmobile.

The almost encyclopedic knowledge of firearms held with in Karl Dael's mind baffled and disturbed Batman to no end. But the Black Hunter knew more than just firearms. His intelligence matched Bruce on all terms, but his views on some subjects made Bruce wonder why he ever allowed him here. Other than the occasional argument on ethics and combat styles, which were usual sorted out over a round of boxing or sparing, the two men became close friends and allies.

"How is the transition between combat and pursue modes?" Bruce asked him, whipping the excess grease from his hands on his mechanics overalls.

Karl, who preferred to work only in his black trousers and boots, rolled from under the Batmobile covered in oil, brake fluid, and grease to explain further. His face was completely covered in oil and grease, including some metal shavings from when he would be fabricating a part for the project. "Fantastic! Look at this shit!" Karl boasted with a wide grin as he activated the change at the front half of the car.

The front tires extended out to the side by at least two feet or so before stopping at a pre-programmed spot where they, along with the rear wheels, would be able to give the Batmobile the ability to move 360 degrees without trouble. Karl then activated the wheels and they turned in all direction just like Bruce's team designed them and the custom part Karl fabricated worked perfectly.

"Fucking right! HA!" Karl cheered with a kind of enthusiasm that Bruce expected out of Harley.

"It's not over yet." Bruce chuckled, a rarity in the Batcave. "We still have to synchronize the rear, install your weapons pack, and finish mounting the jet turbo. Then integrating it with my new suit, Robins, and Nightwings."

"Hehe, at least that bitch of a front end is done. I hate working on steering, I would much rather be installing those brakes you ordered from Deutschland. Die Vaterland manufactures some of the best shit in the world, especially that 60 c.m Kruppe cannon I ordered. Speaking of the Cannon, how are you liking it? From what I saw on the range it can pierce a plate of DU at half a mile with the Tungsten Sabot." Karl replied with a pride at his work.

"I adore it, but I'm still not sure on why we would need the ability to penetrate depleted uranium armor. The schematics on the drones said nothing about DU armor plating." Bruce said, rubbing the ruff edges of his face from two days of no shaving.

Karl chuckled, "You and I both know it's better to be safe than to have your thumb up your ass. But don't worry about the shells. Some are more or less nonlethal and can use cluster shells fitted with a proxy fuse containing a blank shell or a pseudo-flashbang for riot control. Others have High explosive Semtex loads for breaking down walls or barricades. Trust me, you'll need this for whats coming. If I'm right, Waller might have more than just this Seventh Wave shit in her skunk works. She's going for blood and I hope to the gods that she burns for this."

"Are you sure she will use this on Gotham?" Bruce asked him.

"More sure than I've ever been. You know Waller as well as I do and that shit in Arkham City and the Green Mile only hardens my judgement." Karl replied with cold confidence.

Bruce nodded and shook his hand once more, "Thank you for helping with this."

"No, Thank you for allowing me here." Karl replied with a firm grip. "Shall we take a break and have a brew? Maybe the boys and the women want to come? I know they could use a drink."

"Nightwing and Robin are on patrol and Harleen is with Ivy I believe." Bruce replied, wondering what his girlfriend was up too.

"How about Alfred? I know the English enjoy a good pint everyone once in a while."

"That or serve us one." Bruce chuckled.

"Works for me old man." Karl laughed.

The sound of Karl's phone echoed around them with the song 'Fortunate Son' by CCR.

* * *

_Karl- Hello?_

_Harley- Hey Karl! You and Brucey still workin on the car?_

_Karl- Yeah Harls, we finished fucking with the front now we're moving toward the back end now. You and Ivy together right now?_

_Harley- Duh! We're getting dolled up for a club outside Gotham. Some kind of country honkytonk or whatever, something you would like outside of a nightclub and Oktoberfest. You and Bruce wanna make up for that double date ya owe me and Red?_

_Karl- Hell yeah! Me and Bruce are down for a night. We'll meet you there. What's the name of the place? Is it the Barn a couple of miles away from my Farm or is it somewhere new?_

_Harley- The barn, yeah! We'll see you there! Kisses!_

* * *

"You and Harley are becoming good friends I see." Bruce remarked as Karl hung up his phone.

"Not to mention ourselves. After all, it was you who stopped her from killing me and the both of you to bring me to Ivy. You can say it was a group effort!" Karl replied with a light chuckle. "To be honest, me and Harley use to be friends back in Task Force X. She was very nice to me, but not to the point of wanting me. I didn't much care for her in a sexual respect, She reminded me to much of my Wife, may the gods rest her soul. But I protected her no matter what. But Ivy has my heart and my understanding."

"Are you sure it isn't the pheromones talking, eh Karl?" Bruce asked with a mix of concern.

"I had a small thing for her before she became the Ivy we both know. When she was just Pamela Isley or just Pam before becoming Poison Ivy. When she became Ivy I just thought it was the end, that her love of plants held her completely under their control. I guess I was wrong." Karl replied in a serious tone. His voice was warm and even a little embarrassed as he spoke of Poison Ivy.

Bruce smiled, "I can relate. I knew Harleen before she became Harley Quinn. I knew Harleen Quinnzel, the doctor who fell for the Joker and tried to kill me. But then I came to know the Harleen I fell for and the Harley I wanted to help into a better life. You can say it took a lot of work to get to this point."

Karl smirked and shook his head in disbelief at the sight before him. "Can you believe it? How far we have come since we first worked together? How far Ivy and Harleen have come since then? It's crazy you know. But it can't help but feel the same in some ways."

"The more things change the more they seem the same, I know. Even I couldn't help but notice it. But it doesn't feel the same completely..." Bruce wandered off toward the Bat computer, leaving Karl to follow close behind trying to continue the conversation. Usual when Karl or Harley brought up the past Bruce would remember the Joker, the one person beside Harley, His parents, and Taila, that would make him stop talking. It had happen for months and Harley and the rest of the Bat Family learned to let sleeping dogs lie.

But Karl wouldn't...

"Joker had it coming Bruce. I know you tried to help him and that alone should let your mind at ease." Karl told him as he reached his chair.

"I could have saved him." Bruce replied in a depressed tone.

"I could have done a lot of things, but my situation wouldn't allow me. We can't all be perfect..." Karl replied in a sad tone as he remembered his fallen brothers in arms over the years. "You can't save them all, but you can defiantly not save a man who won't save himself. Some men you just can't reach... Some men you just can't bring back from the darkness. I don't like it anymore than you do, Bruce, but it's just a fact of life. You got to get over it some how..."

Bruce gave a long sigh and ran his hand through his hair. The sight of Joker's corpse was still fresh in his mind after almost a year and nothing he tried could break the image in his mind. It was ripping him to pieces...

But being around Harley gave him some comfort and a little ease from the memories of his long dead enemy...

"Come on Bruce, Lets go out and have a drink with our other halves to forget about life for awhile. Better live up this peace we have until another war comes." Karl told him a comrade like tone.

Bruce thought for a moment and looked over toward a picture of Harley and him he took a few months ago. Harley insisted that he keep one in the cave to keep his mind off Joker and, to his surprise, it worked. A large smile took over his face and Bruce figured that he better do what Karl said and live up the down time he had.

"Sure." He replied in a cool tone as he got up from the chair. "But I get to drive. Last time you drove my car you almost killed us."

"It isn't my fault that gas pedal of yours is so damn sensitive!" Karl spat.

Bruce only chuckled and the two comrades walked toward a near by elevator up to Wayne manor. Things seemed to be looking up for Bruce, A new friend and a loving girlfriend. Maybe the Peace is what he needed right now...

But at the back of his mind Bruce couldn't help but wonder, What was lurking in the dark shadows of Gotham while he and his new family calmly enjoyed the peace?

Whatever it was, Bruce was determinant to give it the fight of his life...

_**END, To be Continued in The Devils Name is Arkham: Part 3**_


End file.
